Three Wise Mankeys
by Acanthus Addams
Summary: ...And Two Hormonal Hotheads. A trilogy of standalone oneshots exploring the respective themes of See, Hear and Speak. Pokéshipping. [New Anniversary Bonus Chapter: Feel]
1. See

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Pokémon.

* * *

See

The once modest gathering had not meant to develop into a full-blown party, but when Delia Ketchum invited the Oaks to join her son's little get-together, the unfailingly generous woman found she could not resist laying out an extensive buffet and handing out drinks like they were going out of fashion. It was so rare for her to have company like this, and she was almost certain that Ash would be eager to head off on another journey soon, so the 31-year-old pounced on the opportunity to make this precious night in Pallet Town a memorable one for herself and all the friends and family that surrounded her.

While most of the evening had been spent outside in the sun, the 'partygoers' had gradually filed back inside as the sky began to darken, and were now congregated in the large living room of the Ketchum residence. Ash was sitting in the middle of the floor along with his two closest friends, Misty and Brock, the long sofa across from them already having been claimed by Tracey, Gary and a drowsy-looking Professor Oak. As Delia and her faithful Mr. Mime, Mimey, skipped from one room to another with empty plates and cups in their hands, the former was able to pick up a few passing snippets of her son's tall tales from the Orange Islands:

"So then, we had to heave Snorlax all the way up the mountain with nothing but some rope and a couple of logs we found at the side of the road!" Ash exclaimed.

"Oh, man, that is priceless!" Gary sniggered into his drink, earning him a scowl from the boy at his feet.

"All that because of a broken pokéball?" Brock asked in surprise. Ash nodded.

"Hmm," Professor Oak pondered. "Perhaps I ought to go over my original designs again…"

"Well, that's nothing compared to when we met the one and only Prima!" Misty gushed, her teal eyes turning to hearts.

"Or when we saw all those pink pokémon on Pinkan Island," remarked Tracey. "I knew I should've brought something to colour in my sketches with."

"That's real interesting and all," Gary began, his voice peppered with a distinct slyness, "but I heard that's not all that went down in those islands. Something else happened while you were over there – multiple things, even! Isn't that right, Red?"

Misty was not prepared for his bizarre meandering to suddenly be directed at her, but as her eyes shot up to meet his rather unsettling gaze, the startled redhead could instantly tell what he was getting at.

"Um…" She faltered in her attempts to feign ignorance. "N-Not that I know of."

But it seemed he was not quite through with her yet. "You know what I mean, don't you, big guy?" His eyes flicked over to the perplexed young breeder on Misty's left side. "The stuff Bandana Boy here was telling us earlier today, about those two gym leaders and such?"

It took a moment for Tracey to realise Gary was referring to him, but as he, too, turned his gaze to Brock, the two older teens shared a knowing look before their expressions turned equally mischievous.

"Oh, _that_," Brock grinned furtively.

Ash was completely lost at this point, and he leaned over to ask Misty what was going on when his arrogant rival spoke up again.

"Any more adventures you'd like to share with us, Ashy-boy?" Gary sneered, causing the blushing Misty to dig her nails into the carpet. "No interesting developments between you and your charming bride-to-be here?"

All eyes were on the pair in question as the spiky-haired instigator finished his piece. Ash was still wrestling with the meaning of this obvious taunt, but his fiery friend was not quite so innocent, and she balled her hands up into fists as she leaned forward to glare in turn at everyone around her.

"You're all crazy!" she cried, her eyes tightly shut to avoid their intimidating stares. "Whatever you've heard, it's not true!"

"Well, let's put that to the test, shall we?" Gary immediately retorted. "Does the name _Rudy_ ring any bells?"

Tracey visibly cringed, realising straight away that he may have said too much. Meanwhile, a much more clued-in Ash's ears pricked up at the mention of that name, and although his reaction was not quite as extreme as Misty's, the violent shiver that ran down his spine gave him more than enough incentive to join the fight.

"Everybody shut up!" he insisted. "You've got it all wrong!"

"Got what all wrong?" asked Delia as she re-entered the room. "Oh my; Ash, Misty, you're looking awfully flushed. Is it too hot in here? Well, these ought to cool everyone down!"

Mimey then appeared from behind her with a fresh tray of drinks, proceeding to dole them out to each of the guests with an unwavering smile on its face. Ash and Misty looked away from each other, their faces burning as they sheepishly accepted their glasses of chilled lemonade. To their left, Brock took a sip of the maroon liquid in his glass and smacked his lips in approval.

"Mmm, this wine is amazing, Mrs. K!" He smiled up at the auburn-haired woman.

When he turned around to see looks of bewilderment from his two friends on the floor, he simply shrugged. "Uh-uh, none for you, I'm afraid, kiddies, this is a strictly adult beverage right here."

"I'll take a sipple if you're offering," Gary chipped in.

Delia gasped. "You'll do no such thing, young man! Count yourself lucky I don't tell your mother about that!"

Gary glanced over at his grandfather, who shot him a jovial "don't look at me" kind of look, before simply grinning and flicking his hair. "Pfft, been drinking since I was nine…"

Only Tracey heard his little quip, and although a small smirk graced his features, he remained silent for fear that he would cause even more trouble.

"And, while we're on the subject, you're still underage yourself, mister," Delia scolded the pokémon breeder. "I'm only letting you have this glass as thanks for helping me with the housework these last few days. Don't make me regret that decision, now."

Brock winced, remembering that he was still a few months shy of eighteen, the legal drinking age in the Kanto region. "Yes, Mrs. Ketchum," he mumbled obediently.

It was at that moment that Pikachu and Togepi came scampering into the room through Delia's legs, the latter trilling ecstatically as it chased after the tail of its small, yellow friend. The breeze of their movement caused a thin, rectangular box resting by the doorframe to slide down to the floor, and Delia let out a small squeak of excitement when she bent down to pick it up.

"Ooh, I almost forgot!" She beamed, holding up the box. "Would anyone like to play 'Pin the Tails on the Tauros'? I found it in the attic when I was cleaning last week. It was your absolute favourite growing up, wasn't it, Ashy?"

Ash did not have to wait until everyone turned to face him before his face ignited with embarrassment.

"Mom!" he growled over to her, trying his best to block out the smirks and sniggers coming from all corners of the room.

"I hope you're going to play nicely this time, though," she chirped. "Remember the temper tantrum you had on your eighth birthday when you didn't win?"

The sniggers around him quickly turned into straight up roars of laughter at his expense, and he pulled his cap over his eyes to cover the blush of humiliation on his face.

"I do _now_," he hissed acerbically. Clearly, his mother had not quite got the hang of how much he had grown while on his pokémon journey, something that understandably led to him outgrowing a lot of his earlier pastimes. He would have a hard enough job convincing her of this, let alone all of the friends that currently surrounded him.

"Aww, come on, 'Ashy', it might be fun!" Brock chuckled, apparently having managed to become tipsy from just a few sips of wine.

"Yeah," sneered Gary. "After all, who are we to deprive you of your 'absolute favourite' game, eh?"

"Pikaaa!" Pikachu laughed merrily.

His mocking friends had him cornered, leaving the poor boy with no other choice than to close his eyes and let his head sink down into his folded arms. In the blackness of his huddled position, Ash was positively dying of embarrassment, and may very well have done so, had a soft, sweet giggle to his right not triggered a leap of his heart so bizarre that it forced him to look up.

"Not you, too," he whined dejectedly once he saw Misty staring at him with her big, aquamarine eyes.

"What? I like it when you're embarrassed. It's…" she held her tongue before voicing her original intended word, eventually opting instead for, "…funny."

"And besides..." She recovered almost jarringly quickly, then leaned forward to whisper in his ear. "Isn't this a good opportunity to get Gary back for the battle you had this afternoon?"

If there was one way to get Ash Ketchum to do something, it was by appealing to his competitive nature, and Misty Waterflower had had more practice at that than most.

"Fine!" He stood up and pointed straight at Gary, who just smirked again. "But know that I'm gonna beat you so bad you'll be sorry you cheated all those years ago at my birthday party!"

"Sure, sure," he smarmed. "Just don't cry when I come out on top again, okay?"

The flustered Ash was about to retaliate, but was distracted by the rustling of the box's contents being unearthed and rushed over to take a look.

The first thing to surface was the board, which was nothing more than a waist-high canvas with an exaggeratedly cartoonish print of a tailless tauros in the centre. A few more sniggers slipped out from the spectators when they noticed how Ash's eyes lit up at the sight of it.

Then came the 'tails', a set of three black felt strands a few inches in length, each with a furry tip that sported its own unique colour – one red, one blue, and one yellow – to differentiate between them. This was the children's version, of course, so no actual pins were present, each tail instead featuring an adhesive circle at the top with a peel-off tab over it to preserve its stickiness (suffice it to say that, after its many years of use, only a small amount of the glue remained).

Lastly were the three blindfolds, which flopped down to the floor as Delia tipped the box upside-down. When the last of the jeering and jesting died away, it was decided that the nine participants would be split into groups of three, with each group taking turns to place their tails onto the board.

"Okay then, who wants to go first?" Delia asked.

Ash's hand shot up, spectacularly betraying his illusion of indifference. "Me, me, I wanna go first!"

She placed her hands on her hips. "Now hold on, Ash, let's not be rude to our guests. How about the three boys? Brock, Gary, and…oh, I'm so sorry, dear, I can't quite remember your…"

"No worries, Mrs. Ketchum, it's, erm, Tracey," the pokémon watcher chuckled bashfully. "Yeah, sure, why not?"

The other two agreed, and they all propped themselves up on their knees and shuffled over to the space in front of the board, which now lay against the wall to the left of where Ash, Misty and Brock were originally seated. Delia carefully stretched the elasticated blindfolds over their heads before handing them each a tail and spinning them around on the spot a number of times.

"This brings back so many memories!" she whispered over to Professor Oak, who nodded warmly. Once she took her seat on the sofa, the excitable young woman turned back to the three sightless competitors.

"Everyone ready? On your marks, get set, go!"

The room was alive with cheers as the first round of the game commenced. The three teenagers each paused for a moment, their hands hovering in mid-air while they decided whereabouts on the board to plant their tail. Brock and Gary placed theirs down fairly quickly, confident grins showing beneath their respective masks, whereas Tracey hesitated for a long time, seemingly wracked with uncertainty.

"Come on, Trace, just put it down somewhere!" Ash called over to him. "To the left!"

"Ash, you're not supposed to be helping him!" barked Misty.

He lowered his voice to one with a slightly more solemn tone. "I just don't want Gary to win, that's all."

Eventually, the pokémon watcher picked a spot for his tail, and the three shuffled backwards, revealing the locations of the three objects on the board.

"As I thought," Gary bragged as he removed his blindfold. "Once a pro, always a pro, I guess."

To Ash's extreme chagrin, Gary's tail – the one with the blue tip – was resting in _exactly_ the right place, against the tauros's backside, and he shot a scowl of pure hatred over at his rival before turning his attention back to the board. Brock, however, had managed to choose a very unfortunate place for his tail – right between the pokémon's hind legs.

"Oh really, Brock!" Delia huffed, a subtle pinkness in her cheeks. "I knew giving you that wine was a bad idea!"

"Stupid boys," Misty grunted to herself, her own face rapidly turning red.

As soon as the 'accident' became clear, Tracey and Gary burst into laughter, their sides aching at the increasingly embarrassed Brock's misfortune. Even Professor Oak, against his better judgement, felt a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Ash, unsurprisingly, remained in the dark on this one.

In an attempt to get the room off his back, the flustered Brock proceeded to move forward with the game.

"I don't know what you're laughing about, Sketchit," he addressed the green-haired boy to his right. "At least I got mine closer than yours."

Sure enough, this little remark redirected everybody's attention to Tracey's red tail, which was dangling down from the tauros drawing's eye.

"I…guess I overthought it." He chuckled awkwardly.

"So, who's next?" Delia chipped in.

"Toke toke," squeaked Togepi upon Misty's lap.

"Huh? You want to have your turn now, Togepi?" Misty smiled.

"Priiii!" it answered happily.

"Hey, maybe you should be on Togepi's team, too, Pikachu!" Ash suggested.

"Pika!" nodded the electric mouse as it bounded over to the board.

"We still need one more," said Brock. "How about you, Mrs. Ketchum?"

Delia looked flattered. "Me? Well, I suppose now is as good a time as any."

"But what about…" Ash started, before Brock's fatherly finger waggling cut him off.

"Now, Ash, wait your turn. You'll get your chance in a minute or two."

The young boy folded his arms childishly as Delia fastened the blindfolds onto the two excited pokémon. They were too big, of course, so Misty offered up a couple of her spare hair bobbles with which to tie the extra material up at the back. Unbeknownst to any of them, the little egg pokémon slowly began to swing its stubby arms back and forth, back and forth, back and forth…

"Okay, go!"

This group was a lot less cautious than the last, with all three participants slapping their tails down onto the board almost immediately (Pikachu had to jump to reach his desired spot). When they were satisfied, they all took a step back to admire their efforts.

"Chaa!" Pikachu squealed, apparently pleased with his yellow tail's position on the tauros's back leg. Delia laughed embarrassedly when she noticed her red tail resting on the white background around the picture.

"Oh dear," she said somewhat dizzily. "I was a lot better at this when Ash was little…"

But when they looked over at the remaining tail, then back at the one who had deposited it, everyone's jaws collectively dropped.

"H-How…how did Togepi do that?" Brock asked, his eyes locked on the immaculately placed fabric tail.

"That's even better than Gary's," Tracey spoke in awe, earning him a perturbed look from the boy in question.

"You don't suppose Togepi could have used a move that improved its accuracy, do you?" suggested Professor Oak.

Misty scooped the victorious little pokémon up in her arms. "But Togepi's just a baby! It couldn't have learned any moves yet…could it?"

"Toke prii!" the devious egg giggled.

Whatever the case, the partygoers did not dwell on this strange happenstance for much longer, as it was now time for the final group of Ash, Misty and Professor Oak to step up (or, rather, kneel up) to the board. The two young pokémon trainers did just that, but the greying Professor remained seated, suddenly looking rather ashamed.

"Aren't you playing, Professor?" Tracey asked his idol.

The 52-year-old sat up. "Oh, I would, Tracey, but I fear that if I go down there, I may not be able to get back up. My lumbago and all that."

Delia nodded in understanding. "It's okay, Samuel, we wouldn't want you to hurt yourself."

"Well, looks like this one's only going to be a two-tailed tauros," laughed Brock, giving Ash and Misty a choice of the colours. Ash picked the blue tail, while Misty decided on the yellow.

"You, er, need help, Mist?" Ash asked when he noticed his friend struggling to fit the stretchy elastic around her side ponytail.

"I'm perfectly capable of putting a blindfold on, thank you very much!" she snapped, before finally giving in and yanking out her blue bobble, letting her short orange hair fall freely down her face. Ash's eyes lingered on this rare and strangely pleasing sight for another short moment, but soon snapped out of it and moved to pull his own blindfold over his face.

"Ready, guys?" said Brock. "Go!"

With his vision removed, the environment seemed like a totally different place. Suddenly, background details such as sounds, smells and the texture of the carpet beneath him were infinitely more significant. At the moment, the thing he found himself focusing on the most, to his confusion, was the sound of Misty's breathing next to him. This was also the point at which the young boy realised he had completely lost his bearings, either from being spun around or from his uncharacteristic attention to detail. The board may as well have been in outer space for all the luck Ash was having in finding it.

_Wow, this is a lot harder than I remember it_, he thought as he thrust his flapping tail out in all directions, the latest of which hit Misty squarely in the arm.

"Ow!" she shouted. "Watch where you're going!"

"How am I supposed to do that?" he replied. "I'm blind!"

"Ugh…you know what I mean!"

As much as she tried to hide it, Misty was not fairing any better than her friend. Being unable to see unnerved her, and having been spun until she was dizzy certainly did not help matters. In a vain attempt to at least hit something with her tail, she knelt forward and stuck it onto the first solid thing she came across…namely, Ash's behind.

Once again, the whole room was in an uproar, with even Delia joining in the laughter this time. The sight was just too hilarious to not laugh at.

"What the…" Ash said as he peeked out of his blindfold at the dangling thread at the back of his jeans. "Hey! Now who's not watching where they're going?!"

Amongst the sound of the laughing and the sight of Ash's new body part, the blushing Misty was almost too flustered to speak. "S-Sorry," she said with her head hung low.

"Hey, lighten up, Ash," guffawed Brock. "It looks good on you!"

Gary was practically delirious with laughter. "Yeah, I mean, you do always talk a load of bull!"

"Gary Oak!" Delia lightly scolded.

Trying their best to ignore the rest of the room, Ash and Misty lowered their blindfolds again in the hope of picking up where they left off. Not ten seconds later, Ash's blue tail slipped out of his hand and curled up on the floor in front of him.

"That counts as a turn, Ashy-boy!" Gary was quick to point out.

"What? Since when?" the incensed boy spat back.

"Oh, I think we can afford to throw him a bone here, don't you?" Brock said with another grin. "Let's say you can keep going until you actually find the board, eh, guys?"

"Very funny, Brock," Misty snarled through gritted teeth.

As it turned out, though, their older friend's exaggerated comment proved to be not quite so exaggerated after all. Neither one of them had managed to come even close to the board after several minutes, and their patience was gradually wearing thinner and thinner. It did not help, either, that the two friends kept bumping into each other, grazing shoulders and the like. Misty nearly had a miniature heart attack when she felt Ash's hand on her bare leg at one point, and considered telling him off, but did not want to draw any more attention to herself than she already had (also, it was not the worst feeling in the world…).

Though the game was still very much on, Brock, Tracey and Gary had started up a conversation amongst themselves, and Professor Oak was gradually beginning to doze off. Delia watched her son and his redheaded friend intently, her hands clasping together every now and then.

"Oh, this is just too cute," she mused to herself. "I need to get a picture of this."

She then rushed up the stairs to her bedroom in search of her camera, giggling all the while. Taking this opportunity, Gary tiptoed forward towards Ash and Misty, making sure to be extra careful not to alert them, and, with one neat swooping motion, swiped the board away from them and tucked it under his arm.

"I got it!" he whispered to Brock and Tracey, who chuckled their approval before turning back to the scene in front of them. As they predicted, Ash and Misty were none the wiser.

"This is ridiculous," Ash whined. "I've played this game hundreds of times. It's never been this hard before!"

"Think yourself lucky," Misty answered. "When I played with my sisters, we didn't have the proper board or anything, so they used to make _me_ be the tauros!"

When Ash let out a small snigger, the young girl swung her arm out to hit him, only to strike thin air.

"Let's just get this over with." She sighed irritably.

Though initially having fun, Ash could not help but feel the same way at this point. His desperation to one-up Gary aside, this aimless scrambling around was just infuriating.

In a move that would be considered reckless coming from anyone except Ash, he angrily dove forwards, hoping to detect some trace of the elusive tauros, only to slam his head straight into the wall where it used to be.

"Owww…" he groaned, his hat falling off as he turned around to sit with his back flush against the wall. Misty jumped at the startling crashing sound and attempted to move towards it.

"What was that?" she cried. "What just happened? Ash, was that y- whoooaa!"

Before she could finish, the young girl hit her knee against Ash's outstretched leg, stumbling forwards and landing on something oddly soft in her path. Ash himself felt a sudden weight upon him, but his blindfold prevented him from identifying it straight away. In his sightless state, he found himself, once again, looking for the littler details, the ones he might otherwise have ignored. Whatever it was was warm – very warm, in fact – and soft, though slightly bony in places. A faint tickly sensation radiated out from the tip of his nose to his cheekbones. Then there was that breathing again, the almost sonorous airy cadences that could only have belonged to…

As soon as the pieces began to come together, the young boy ripped off his blindfold in an instant to find himself staring straight into the wide, teal eyes of one Misty Waterflower.

"I'm back, dears, just hold still while I…oh my," Delia gasped, holding her camera close to her face.

His whole face turned scarlet in a fraction of a second. Their foreheads were practically touching, and their noses were barely a centimetre apart. Misty's hands were pressed down on his shoulders, her knuckles turning white as she struggled to keep herself from falling any further and closing that miniscule distance between them. Her silky hair brushed against Ash's cheeks, the gentle contact causing him to shiver. Neither seemed to be able to speak, much less move apart, their eyes locked together and their mouths hanging open. Ash in particular was inexplicably transfixed by the sight before him. He and Misty had never been so close; did she always have those little freckles around her nose? How come he had never noticed how shiny her eyes were before? The questions that materialised in the boy's mind both intrigued and terrified him, and just when he began to look around for a distraction, a collection of faces out of the corner of his eye instantly reminded him that he and Misty had quite an audience watching them.

"Woohoo! Way to go, guys!" Brock cheered rather drunkenly.

The two horrified preteens broke apart immediately, looking away from one another at different parts of the carpet.

"Well, Ashy-boy, looks like you finally got some tail after all!"

Ash cocked his head at Gary's peculiar comment, remaining confused until he felt a short slip of fabric dangling down from the end of his nose. With a roll of his eyes, he quickly deduced that Misty must have accidently pinned it on him when she fell.

Tracey said nothing, instead scribbling furiously away at an impromptu sketch in his sketchpad, grinning while he worked.

As her embarrassment began to subside, a perplexing thought reappeared in Misty's mind, and her head slowly rose to meet her sadistic friends.

"Wait a minute," she said. "Where did the board go? It was right here, and then-"

But then she saw it, hidden not so carefully between Gary Oak's back, and the obnoxious smirk he shot her was more than enough for everything to click into place in her head.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU GUYS!" she shrieked, a harrowing fire in her eyes as she leapt to her feet and chased her three scheming tormentors out of the front door and up the street. Ash simply sat there, dumbstruck by what had just happened. His 'peace' did not last long, however, as Pikachu soon sidled up to him wearing a smug grin not dissimilar from that of his rival.

"Chuuu," he teased, drawing out the single syllable to emphasise his point.

Naturally, Ash's blush returned with full force, and he took in a deep breath, delivering a perfectly crafted response with all the maturity and eloquence that his friends and family had come to expect from him over the years:

"Shut up."


	2. Hear

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Pokémon.

* * *

Hear

"So, you're saying she can't hear us at all?"

"As far as I can tell, no."

"I'm gonna double check: MISTY! MISTYYYY! HELLOOOO- OW!"

"Ash, she may not be able to hear you, but she can still see you screaming in her face!"

The 13-year-old pokémon trainer fell backwards onto the grass to nurse the foot his ailing companion had just stamped on, sticking his tongue out at her and receiving a gesture of equal childishness straight back. Brock just tutted to himself at the pitiful scene before turning back to inspect the embarrassed girl's red and swollen ear.

"Yep, looks like an ear infection to me." He frowned. "My little sister, Cindy, used to get this kind of thing all the time."

"Is it bad?" Ash asked as he made his way back over to them.

"Not at the moment," Brock replied. "But we will need to take her to a doctor once we reach the next town."

The older pokémon breeder then produced a small torch from his backpack, shining it against the side of Misty's head and revealing a rather disturbing sight to his young friend.

"Whoa! What is that?!" Ash recoiled, his disgusted expression causing Misty to growl in annoyance.

Brock rolled his eyes. "It's a cyst, Ash. I'm assuming that's why she can't hear anything."

"Well, can't you just, you know…" He performed a quick forward stabbing motion with his index finger.

"Lance it? Not unless we want the infection to spread."

Despite the explanation, Ash still appeared confused. "Hang on a minute. How come she's totally lost her hearing if the infection's only in one ear?"

"I don't know, Ash, I'm not a doctor." Brock sighed. "Although, I can't imagine the barrage of Supersonic attacks she took when she fell into that zubat nest the other day did her any favours."

As the inquisitive teenager let out a short "ohhh" of understanding, Brock returned to his backpack, rummaging right down to the bottom before pulling out a small tube of red and white capsules.

"Well, we're still nowhere near Olivine City, and not all of the smaller towns in-between show up on the map," he stated. "But the closest one's still probably a couple of days away. Until then, these are all I've got. They'll keep the pain at bay, at least."

He held the tube out to Misty. "Just take one of these every four hours or so and…oops, sorry, I forgot you can't hear me."

Quickly locating a pen and paper from his seemingly bottomless rucksack, he jotted down the necessary instructions, sticking them neatly with some tape to the side of the tube and placing the tube in the disgruntled redhead's hands. She gave a small smile of thanks before looking back down at the ground.

"So, what do we do now?" Ash asked.

"Nothing we can do but keep going, I guess," answered Brock. "I'll take care of Togepi in the meantime. You keep an eye on Misty, okay?"

The pokémon breeder decided not to wait for his younger friend to respond (or, more likely, complain) before he took Misty's chirping egg pokémon into his arms and continued on without another word down the sun-drenched dirt road.

"Err, okay…?" Ash mumbled, confused by the matter-of-factness of Brock's exit. He then turned around to face his red-faced friend, beckoning with a slight grin and a flick of his wrist for her to follow.

"Hmph," she huffed, looking down and not moving an inch. Being so vulnerable left her feeling too humiliated to act civilly.

But it was during this fleeting moment of silence that Ash's eyes landed on a small, green, insectoid presence near Misty's right foot. Its six legs made a slight clicking sound as it scuttled closer to the unsuspecting girl, and the markings on its back gradually stretched into something resembling a smiling face. Despite the 'duty' thrust upon him by Brock only moments ago, the young boy had to turn away quickly to hide the devious grin that spread across his face.

"Suit yourself." He sniggered, knowing full well that his friend could not hear him. "I guess I'll just leave you alone with that nice spinarak on your shoe…"

Slowly, Ash began to walk forwards, but kept his head cocked to one side to listen out for the inevitable shriek of terror from behind him. Misty's fear of bug pokémon was something he would never understand, but always managed to get a kick out of nonetheless, and if he were to guess, hilarity would ensue in exactly three, two, one…

"AYYYYYEEEEEEEEKKKK!"

Before the scheming pokémon trainer had a chance to look over his shoulder, the frantic Misty tore past him at a breakneck speed, almost knocking Brock over further ahead and disappearing up the road so far that she was virtually out of sight. Brock looked back towards Ash with a decidedly unimpressed look on his face, whereas the boy in question was doubled over with laughter, his eyes watering from the sight of the impromptu prank he had just orchestrated.

"I tried to warn you!" he shouted along the road, still chuckling to himself.

Of course he would look after Misty – he did not need Brock to tell him to do that – but there was nothing to say that he could not have a little fun while doing so.

* * *

It was not deafness, per se; rather, everything sounded blurry, indistinct, a feeling not unlike being deep underwater. Misty Waterflower knew that feeling extremely well, but it was not one she had ever particularly wanted to feel while on land – and certainly not accompanied by all the sharp pains shooting around her head. The sensation was nauseating, almost to the point of being physically sick, but she persevered in silence, not wanting to be mollycoddled any more than she already had been. That, and she could not exactly take part in any of her companions' conversations, so the solemn young girl tried to keep her distance – at least, as much as one could when travelling with someone like Ash Ketchum.

"Here you go, Mist." The very person smiled down at her, placing a bowl of hot soup on her lap. She jumped slightly at the unexpected contact, but soon gave a bashful smile and turned her attention to her meal.

"You okay?" He continued to stare at her, the light of the campfire dancing in his deep brown irises. "Your cheeks are kinda red."

Like he had watched Brock do earlier that day, Ash instinctively raised his hand up to Misty's forehead and planted it gently against her pale skin. The unprepared redhead's eyes opened as wide as they would go, and she shuddered at the touch. After only a few seconds, however, she roughly shook him off, grunting as her eyes snapped back down at the ground.

"Hey, I'm trying to help you!" Ash exclaimed, a somewhat hurt tone to his boyish voice.

It was clear by now, though, that there was no getting through to his prickly friend, and with a sigh of frustration, the young boy shuffled back over to his side of the log he and Misty were sitting on.

The rest of the meal passed by in silence, despite Misty's belief that Ash and Brock must have been positively living it up without her. Nobody seemed in the mood to talk, as if the current predicament among the group had cast an impenetrable, unreachable cloud over things. It was only when Brock stood up to gather his cooking apparatus that some energy appeared to seep back into the scene.

"There's some more soup if anyone wants it," he called over to his two friends as he stirred the remains at the bottom of the large cooking pot. "Probably only enough for one person, though, so you guys are gonna have to fight over it."

The ever-ravenous Ash's stomach growled at the prospect of more food, and when he suddenly remembered that he was the only one to have heard Brock's offer, another devilish idea sprung into his mind.

"I've got a better idea," he crooned slyly. "Whoever wants the last helping, raise your hand!"

Aware that his 'opponent' was facing the other way and thus had no idea what was going on, Ash stuck his hand firmly up in the air, then gave himself a congratulatory pat on the back.

"Oh well, looks like it's mine, then!" He laughed as he made his way over to the pot.

Brock just shook his head in exasperation, running a hand through his coarse, brown hair. Teenagers could be such a handful at times like these.

* * *

The following morning, the trio were back on the rural roads of Johto, travelling together in a peaceful silence after their hearty breakfast à la Brock. The two boys were leading the group, Ash idly trudging along with his hands behind his head and Brock consulting the map as he walked. Misty, as usual, was trailing behind, and although Pikachu had made a point to keep her company ever since she woke up, her current feeling of helplessness was still boiling her blood beyond belief.

Eventually, they came to a fork in the road, with one path leading to a thick brush and another seemingly sloping uphill towards the mountains. Ash bit his lip in uncertainty as his eyes darted between the two routes.

"Aww, man." He sighed. "How are we going to know which path leads to town?"

But Brock appeared from behind him, tapping him on the shoulder with the corner of his map as a reminder.

"Oh, yeah." He grinned sheepishly. "Well, which way is quickest?"

"Six and two threes, from what I can gather," said Brock without looking up from the map. When his naïve young friend did not answer, he made sure to add, "It means they're the same."

"Ah," he muttered. "Well, in that case, let's take the forest path. Maybe we can find a shortcut!"

"Fine with me," Brock shrugged. Only a few steps down the aforementioned lane, however, Ash stopped in place as a bizarre thought occurred to him.

"What's that, Misty?" he grinned, cupping his hand around his ear. "Don't you want to go down the other path? Am I not a total idiot for going this way? You sure you don't want to yell at me and hit me with something heavy? No? Well, alright then, this way it is!"

Once again, the taciturn redhead was staring blankly off into space, missing the entirety of her teasing friend's spiel.

Marching proudly down his chosen road, another rascally smirk made its way onto Ash's face, and he whistled a triumphant melody to himself in celebration of his uncontested victory.

"I could get used to this."

* * *

A few hours passed, and a slightly calmer Misty sat alone by the edge of a small stream deep in the woods, trying to keep her mind off the searing pain in her ear with some simple washing up. A stone's throw away, a trio of miscreants observed her carefully from behind a thick patch of shrubbery.

"Look, Jess, it's that redheaded twerp," remarked the soft-spoken, blue-haired man.

"Yes, but what's she doing all alone?" the crimson-haired woman to his right pondered.

"And ain't she da one what looks after Togepi?" said Meowth, squinting his feline eyes for any sign of the Spike Ball Pokémon he had played a part in raising.

"Well I say we strike now!" Jessie declared. "We've seen how strong her water pokémon are; imagine the boss's face if we bring him the whole set!"

James appeared unconvinced. "Shouldn't we wait until the other twerps arrive?"

"Yeah," Meowth agreed. "Dat way we can swipe all their pokémon too!"

"I'm not waiting around any longer!" Jessie shrieked at them, causing them both to shrink slightly. "Besides, the other twerps always show up one way or another. The main one can't be away from his little girlfriend for more than five minutes; it's so saccharine that it makes me want to throw up."

"Well, I think it's just adorable!" James squealed.

Meowth growled. "Will you guys getcha heads in da game! If we're gonna nab deez pokémon we gotta do it now!"

Jessie and James both nodded, and, on the count of three, the duo leapt dramatically out of the bushes, taking their places as their pokémon companion cued the music.

"Prepare for trouble!"

"And make it double!"

To their surprise, Misty kept her back turned, not so much as flinching at their arrival. The two Team Rocket members looked at each other curiously before shrugging and carrying on.

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To unite all peoples within our nation!"

Again, nothing. The pair was beginning to get annoyed.

"To denounce the evils of _truth_ and _love_!" Jessie purposely over-enunciated.

"To extend our _reach_ to the _stars_ above!" James responded in kind.

At that moment, Misty let out a small yawn, infuriating the conniving pokénappers to no end.

"JESSIE!"

"JAMES!"

"TEAM ROCKET…BLAST OFF AT THE SPEED OF…LIGHT!" panted Jessie, her eyes bulging in frustration.

"SURRENDER NOW…OR PREPARE TO FIIIIIIIGHT!" James finished on a piercing falsetto.

"Meowth, that's…huh?"

Once the Scratch Cat noticed the outrage of their beloved motto being snubbed, he, too, was shaking with anger.

"Just what is the meaning of this, twerp?!" Jessie snapped, taking a step forward.

James also edged towards the unaware girl. "Do you have any idea how long it took me to sew this dress?!" He gestured towards the frilly pink number he had slipped into during their fanfare. "The least you could do is look at it!"

"Enough chatter!" Meowth hissed, "Let's just get her pokéballs and skedaddle!"

Still growling under their breaths, the trio tiptoed forward towards the red drawstring bag at Misty's side. This twerp was usually the most dangerous out of the three, so to witness her acting so placid and nonchalant was just baffling. Still, they had a job to do, and, leaning in, James began to stretch out his hand, his fingers just grazing the edges of the bag, when…

"Team Rocket!"

Startled, Jessie, James and Meowth swivelled around to face an opening in the trees, where Ash, Brock and Pikachu were staring them down angrily. Even Misty was alerted by the commotion, almost falling into the water as she noticed the three insidious figures surrounding her.

The grinning Jessie instantly adopted her battle position, and after a quick nudge to the arms of her two team members, they both quickly followed suit.

"Now _that's_ more like it."

* * *

A rather worn-out Brock eyed the dwindling fire from his spot on the dry grass.

"I'd better go and find some more firewood," he droned, standing up straight and stretching his back. "Can I trust you not to start anything else while I'm gone?"

Ash did a double take. "Who, me? What have I done?"

A long sigh escaped from Brock's chest. "I'll be back as soon as I can. Just…be nice."

And with that, he vanished almost instantly beyond the fringes of the forest clearing. Ash leant back on the tree stump he was sitting on, glancing over at the snoozing Pikachu and Togepi by the fire before turning his gaze to Misty atop her red sleeping bag. The redhead was simply staring straight up at the starry sky, apparently lost in deep thought.

"Some day, huh, Mist?" Ash smiled over at her, a mere three seconds before his face fell and he muttered a weary, "Oh…yeah. I forgot again."

As the day had progressed, Ash had gradually come to realise that his many tricks and pranks had little lasting appeal when the person they were meant for was not even reacting to them. Of course, that had been the point at first, but this one-sidedness did not feel as satisfying as he thought it would, and over time, Misty's sullen and reserved behaviour began to seem more upsetting than amusing (not least because Brock had successfully shut down the boy's latest few attempts to trick her, including a repeat of the 'leftovers incident' from the other day).

"You know, these conversations are a lot more fun when there's actually two people involved in them." He chuckled sarcastically. With her head buried in her pillow, Misty could only hear the faintest, blotchiest traces of sound, but kept her eyes fixed on the stars above her, assuming it was just the wind or some other forest noise.

"Normally, we'd be having our nighttime argument by now," he continued. "Something about who has to wash the dishes tomorrow or whatnot. Hey, I just thought, this might be the longest we've gone without fighting since we first started travelling together! How about that?"

He took off his red cap and scratched vigorously at his matted black hair before turning to stare at the dying embers of the campfire. To his right, he could hear Misty groaning in pain and rustling in her sleeping bag, but the boy had learned to tune such sounds out over the past couple of days, knowing that there was very little he could do to help her. After about a minute, he took in a deep breath only to release most of it in a heavy sigh.

"Okay, I'm only saying this because I know you can't hear me," he began, "but the last two days haven't been the same without you there to talk to. It's just weird, you know? I mean, we're always talking about something when we're on the road, or laughing at one of Brock's crazy stories, or yelling at each other about which evolved form of eevee is the best, but there's been none of that for ages now, and I guess I didn't realise how much I, you know, liked it."

"And yeah, even the fighting, if you can believe that," he added. Some more rustling came from his silent addressee's direction, but Ash's gaze did not shift from the smouldering pile of sticks at his feet.

"I know you weren't even looking during most of them," continued the fidgeting young boy, "but I'm, er, sorry for all the pranks I tried to pull on you. I guess I was just bored, hehe. And yeah, yeah, I know what you're going to say…"

He raised his voice to an exaggeratedly high pitch. "_Yeah, right, like you've ever been sorry about anything to do with me, especially my bike!_ Well, I am, so deal with it, Miss High-and-Mighty!"

When Misty let out a small cough, Ash shook his head jovially and then swiftly returned to his audience-less speech.

"But it wasn't all bad! Remember when I sent us into the forest instead of going up the mountain path? Well, I thought that'd be the best thing for your ear, 'cause Brock told me once about how high altitudes can make you lightheaded, and I didn't want you fainting on me or anything. Can you believe it? I used science! Aren't you proud of me?"

As his light laughter faded, the teenager's expression became darker, and his face suddenly conveyed a note of nervousness.

"The truth is, I've been kinda worried about you ever since all this started. You're not normally quiet like this; in fact, you're pretty much the loudest person I've ever met! I ought to be the deaf one…hehe, I'm so glad you can't hear this. Anyway, I know we act like we hate each other most of the time, but I do think about you a lot, you know, because, um…oh, man, I can't believe I'm saying this…"

Despite the fact that he was essentially talking to himself, the thought of his next words brought forth a warm blush across Ash's cheeks.

"I just hope you get well soon, Misty, because, well…you're my best friend."

His face still burning, Ash moved back from the fire and turned his attention to the night sky, admiring the sheet of twinkling white orbs staring down at him. The 'conversation' he had just had was a lot to open up about at once, even if no-one was listening, but the young boy found himself relieved that he had had a chance to air all of these thoughts and feelings that may never have surfaced otherwise. He did not have much time to ruminate, however, before he felt something warm and soft touch his hand, causing him to twitch in shock.

"Do you mean that?"

Ash's head snapped to the right, his eyes wide when he noticed Misty kneeling beside him, only about a foot away. The intensity of her stare coupled with the smoothness of her hand on top of his did little to quell the blush on his face.

"Waaahh!" he cried. "M-Misty…you can hear me?"

She nodded, and it was then that Ash noticed her other hand holding a ball of tissues up to her infected left ear.

"How? Wait, did it…?"

"Yep, all over my sleeping bag." She grimaced, a look that her friend soon mirrored. "Didn't you hear me writhing and squirming like crazy a couple of minutes ago?"

Ash's face flashed with guilt. "Oh, er, kinda, yeah, but I…"

"Oh, so you ignored me. Well, that's nice to know."

"No, no, it's not like that! I just didn't know what I could d-"

But when something truly harrowing crossed the young teenager's mind, his poor attempt at a validation was lost in the ether.

"Hold on a minute…" He shuddered. "H-How much of that did you hear?"

To his horror, Misty just smiled. "Pretty much the whole thing. Never would've figured you for such a bleeding heart, Mr. Pokémon Master."

Predictably, Ash raised his hands up in denial. "N-No, that's not it! I was just saying how much of a bore you've been these last few days, and how I wanted you to get better so you wouldn't have such a moody face on you all the time!"

"That's not what it sounded like to me," she teased. "And, by the way, that impression you did of me was just awful."

All Ash could do was scratch his head sheepishly as Misty scooted him over to join him on the tree stump. Her hand was still resting on his, and their closeness made his heart pound for a reason he did not quite understand.

"But I have to know," she spoke in a softer, more serious tone. "Did you mean that last bit? About me being your best friend?"

Her eyes were looking straight into his. There was something so inexplicably fascinating about them, intoxicating even, that Ash briefly forgot that she had even asked him a question. He nodded his head weakly, and took in a number of breaths before attempting to speak again.

"…I meant all of it."

Misty closed her eyes and looked away, her cheeks lighting up around the peaceful smile that adorned her face. "Thanks, Ash." She sighed contently. "And, well, I'm not sure I would ever have said anything either if we weren't in this position, but you're my best friend, too."

"Really?" Ash asked, stunned.

Though she knew they were having a moment of unprecedented intimacy, the young girl had barely spoken a word for two days, and was in a noticeably playful mood. "Actually, wait, no, it's Brock who does the cooking, isn't it?" She grinned. The boy's face drooped when she said this, and she quickly added, "I'm just kidding, you idiot! It's always been you."

_It's always been you_, she repeated to herself in her head. How beautifully fitting that phrase was on a number of levels. Of course, that was a discussion for another day.

A short silence passed, allowing the two newly christened best friends to take in the meaningful words of the other. Ash was content to sit like this for the rest of the night, but Misty was tired of silence, and wasted no time in starting the conversation back up.

"Then again," she began somewhat cryptically, "I'd just _love_ to hear about all these 'pranks' you supposedly pulled on me when I was too ill to fight back…"

Ash recognised that tone, and it usually ended in pain – specifically, his. "Uhh, well, you see…"

"And I don't suppose you had anything to do with that spinarak that nearly crawled RIGHT UP MY LEG yesterday, did you?!" she growled.

The anxious pokémon trainer began to edge away from her on the stump. "Now, h-hang on, I can, er, explain everything. Th-The thing is, um…BYE!"

Without looking back, Ash slid off the stump and pelted across the clearing, unable to hide the laughter that made its way up his throat.

"YOU GET BACK HERE, ASH KETCHUM!" Misty chased after him furiously. The volume of her voice notwithstanding, her pursuit was mostly amicable, with the two good friends merely enjoying each other's company after the stress and tumult of the last two days. A few minutes in, Brock returned with two armfuls of tinder, dropping them to the ground when he spotted his two flailing young friends at the other end of the clearing.

"What on earth are you guys doing?!" he shouted over to them. "Do you know how late it is? Misty, you know you're not supposed to be running around in your condition! Is anyone listening to me?! Hello?!"

Yet, ironically enough, they did not hear him.


	3. Speak

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Pokémon.

* * *

Speak

Iris and Cilan had rarely seen Ash in such a talkative mood. Granted, his victory at the Nimbasa City gym earlier that day had been quite the spectacle, a battle worthy of a lively discussion, but that topic had slipped out of the conversation some time ago, and now it seemed that all their hyperactive companion was doing was rambling nonsensically to anyone too polite to turn him down. Iris, being as candid as she was, had had no problem with that.

"Is he _still_ going?" she whispered to Cilan as the trio stepped through the automatic doors of the Nimbasa pokémon centre.

"I'll admit, this kind of vocal stamina is impressive, even for Ash," the pokémon connoisseur remarked. "Maybe I ought to dial back the sugar content the next time I attempt to make homemade Casteliacones."

Iris smirked. "He's such a kid."

"Ax!" agreed Axew from within her voluminous purple hair.

But as much of a kid the 20-year-old pokémon trainer appeared to be, the real reason for his energy could not solely be attributed to a sugar rush this time. His Unovan friends' confusion was understandable, as he had yet to make his intentions known to them, but Ash was simply too excited to wait any longer, for tonight was the night of his monthly phone call with Misty.

He kept in touch with all of his friends, of course, writing to them religiously no matter where he was (or, indeed, where they were), but only Misty Waterflower held the title of best friend, and their regular videophone conversations had become something of a tradition ever since she left the group all those years ago. The fifteenth of every month was Misty Day, as he dubbed it – or, at least, every month where access to a phone was available. Ash's constant travelling made it hard to keep up this ritual as time went on, leading to many regrettably long periods of no face-to-face contact; yet, the letters still flowed, and something about the often lengthy stint between their calls only made the two estranged friends treasure them more when they finally came around.

Just as the group approached the front desk, Ash spun around on his heel to face his two travelling companions, who were forced to stop to avoid bumping into him.

"You guys go ahead," he said. "I've, er, got a call to make. Won't be too long."

Looking left and right along the rows of videophones on either side of the reception desk, he walked to the middle of the right-hand row and sat himself down at the only available seat. He supposed that it made sense for everyone to want to call their loved ones on a Friday night, and considering that he was also about to do just that, he could not exactly complain. Despite this, Pikachu seemed unsettled by the rather cramped conditions and hopped off Ash's shoulder in the direction that Iris and Cilan had headed in.

"Oh, hey, Pikachu," Iris chirped as the yellow mouse bounded up to her. Something about his entrance halted the aspiring dragon master's ascent up the stairs, and she skipped back down to ground level to peer around the corner at Ash on the phone.

"Er, Iris, what are you doing?" Cilan asked from further up the steps.

"I wanna know who Ash is calling," she whispered furtively.

"Pikachupi!" Pikachu tried to answer, but when their inevitable looks of confusion travelled over to him, the unimpressed pokémon redirected his attention to beckoning Axew out of Iris's hair and initiating a game of chase.

Cilan made his way back down the stairs, a concerned look on his face. "Now, Iris, I'm not sure that's really any of our business. Don't you think it's rude to eavesdrop like this?"

"I'm not eavesdropping, I can barely hear myself think in here," she explained. "All I want to do is see who it is."

"Well…it still doesn't seem proper to intrude upon his private conversation," the ever-gentlemanly gym leader stated.

Iris groaned. "Look, he's done this a couple of times now, acted all jumpy and hyper then blown us off to call some mystery person in Kanto. Aren't you the least bit curious about it?"

By the time she turned around, her changeable friend had donned a peaked brown hat and was holding a magnifying glass up to his piercing green eye.

"A mystery, you say?" he inquired dramatically. "Well, look no further, for there is no better mystery solver than I, De-"

"Yeah, yeah, Detective Cilan, great," Iris humoured him before returning to her position with a small smile on her face. "Now stay focused, I think it's starting."

For once, Ash appeared not to have noticed Pikachu's sudden absence. He reached into his pocket for the money he had set aside specifically for this, feeding each coin carefully into the slot and pressing the bright green receiver to the side of his head. The ringing sound whirred in his ear for several seconds before being replaced by a sweet voice that caused his heart to leap in excitement.

"Y-Yeah…Cerulean gym?"

Ash suppressed a light chuckle. Usually, his friend's greeting was a lot more long-winded and courteous, her intonations rising and falling in a well-rehearsed, business-like sort of way. Then again, though, it had to be after midnight in Kanto by now, and with a pang of guilt, he realised that he may very well have got her out of bed just for this.

"Is that any way to greet your best friend?" he said with a smirk.

As soon as the words left his mouth, a familiar sight of the Cerulean gym's front desk appeared on the screen in front of him, at the centre of which was the very person he wanted to see. Though her fiery red hair and blue-green eyes were precisely how he remembered them, her facial expression was not what he had expected to be met with at all.

"Oh, so _now_ you remember I'm your best friend?!" she snapped, her tone both serious and sarcastic. "Do you have any idea how long it's been since you last called? Four months. Four goddamn months! And don't give me that 'I couldn't get to a phone' crap, because your mom told me you called her the other day! With friends like that, who needs enemies, huh?!"

Shaking off his initial shock, Ash released a frustrated sigh. It was clear from Misty's tone that she was very tired, and therefore more cantankerous than usual, but as her words sunk in, he knew that she had a point.

"Whoa, whoa, hang on a minute," he stuttered. "I still wrote, didn't I? I was on the road for ages before I got here, so how was I going to call you? Stop looking at me like that; it's true! And I only didn't call you at the same time as Mom because I wanted to wait until our day, you know? The one we agreed on?"

He stopped to draw in a breath, leaning slightly closer to the screen. "Misty, I'm sorry I didn't call for so long – it's not like I didn't want to – but hey, I'm calling you now, right? Surely that's got to count for something."

Once he finished his piece, the disgruntled redhead unfolded her arms and looked sheepishly back over at the videophone screen.

"Well, I suppose it's better than nothing," she eventually said, though the smirk playing at the corners of her mouth betrayed her attempts to look annoyed. "So, how've you been doing?"

From the sidelines, Iris squinted her eyes to get a better look at the orangey yellow blob on Ash's screen.

"It's a girl," she murmured to herself, her eyelids lowering and her mouth stretching into a wicked smile. "A pretty girl. Oh, Ash, you sly dog, you."

Cilan overheard her muttering and poked his grassy head out from behind the pillar at the foot of the stairs.

"Ah, so this was the reason for his strange behaviour. A classic but oh-so-pleasing combination of flavours," he declared in the manner only he knew how.

"Looks like that's our mystery wrapped up." Iris shrugged as she stretched out her back. "Guess he's not such a kid after all," she finished with a devious laugh.

"On the contrary!" Cilan suddenly proclaimed, nearly causing her to jump. "The mystery's only just beginning! It seems to me like…" he paused to shed his detective gear, "it's evaluating time!"

He then leant around the pillar as far as he could go, stroking his chin as the wheels in his connoisseur's mind began to turn. Iris simply shook her head, grinning impotently.

"Oh boy, what have I started here?"

* * *

"And hey, get this…" Ash grinned as his friend stooped forwards for the climax of his story. "The gym had an actual rollercoaster in it!"

"No way!" came her astonished response. "That's so cool! My sisters have met Elesa before, I think; probably during one of their fashion shows. Never mentioned anything about going to the Nimbasa gym though."

"Hey, you ought to put in a kind of log flume or something at your gym. Ooh, or a water slide! Man, I'd come to visit all the time if it was like that!"

"Oh, well I'm very sorry my home bores you so much!" Misty huffed, though still in good fun. "But now you mention it, we are planning a kind of remodelling of the gym soon. Well, the Pokémon League is, more like. I don't think we get much of a say in it."

"Maybe I can put a word in for you once I become a pokémon master." He grinned cockily, a look that earned him a tut of disapproval. "Oh, yeah, that reminds me, we were just walking down the road the other day, and I kid you not, I genuinely thought I saw…er, Misty? Hello? Misty?"

The pokémon trainer's little anecdote was brought to an abrupt end when he noticed his redheaded friend acting rather peculiarly. Her mouth was moving, but no words were coming out, and by the looks of her frantic arm movements, she seemed to be furiously prodding at all of the buttons on her console. It took a shamefully long time for Ash to put two and two together.

"Argh, you've got to be kidding me," he groaned as he also began to hammer the controls of the videophone. He considered whacking the thing, but remembering that he was in plain view of the Nurse Joy at the desk, he reluctantly opted to go and ask her instead.

"Something seems amiss," Cilan pondered. "I think something unwelcome has just been added to the broth."

Iris grabbed him by the collar. "He's coming this way. Quick, get down!"

Ash's companions squashed themselves down underneath the curved staircase, successfully evading the man in question on his short journey to the reception desk. After explaining the situation to Nurse Joy, the benevolent, pink-haired woman followed Ash back to his seat.

"Oh dear, not this again." She sighed when she reached over his shoulder to inspect the videophone. "We've been having problems with this unit all week. For some reason, the audio just cuts out several minutes into every call, and we haven't been able to figure out why. There's nothing wrong from your, er, girlfriend's end, though, so you may want to…"

"Oh n-no, she's, er, not my girlfriend." He tried to laugh it off, despite the pinkness that reached his cheeks. Misty temporarily took a break from bashing her phone with her mallet to look up, whereupon Ash and a slightly nervous Nurse Joy were staring back at her. She quickly disposed of the weapon and scratched her head embarrassedly.

"I apologise that we're so busy tonight," Joy spoke up, "but if you'd like to try again on another unit later on, I'll make sure the money from this call carries over. Otherwise, I'd be happy to offer you a full refund."

Ash took a moment to weigh his options. Frankly, neither seemed particularly appealing right off the bat. Calling from Unova had proven more difficult than any of the other regions he had been to, as he had never had to worry about things like time zones and overseas charges until now. Option A was all but out of the question, as it was the middle of the night already in Cerulean City, and he could not exactly ask her to stay up all night for him when she had a gym to run. As for Option B, while a refund would definitely be welcome – the prices over here were, after all, nothing short of extortionate – Ash knew that they were heading back out tomorrow morning, meaning that this was pretty much the only opportunity he and Misty had to talk, and, sound or no sound, what was more important here?

"You know what?" he finally said. "That's okay. I think we can manage."

Nurse Joy was, understandably, utterly perplexed. "But…are you sure?"

Confidently, he nodded, and with a rather amused smile, the young woman stepped lightly back over to her place behind the reception desk. Ash's eyes settled back on the videophone screen, grinning when he saw his friend stare blankly back at him. He had saved the world a dozen times; fought off every evil his journey had thrown at him and not even broken a sweat. Getting through a phone call without being able to speak a single word? Now _there_ was a challenge worthy of the Chosen One.

With a few in-and-out twirls of his index finger, Ash attempted to pose the question of "should we carry on?" to the bemused Misty. She seemed to catch on quickly, her expression halfway between incredulity and relief, and with a gleeful nod of her head, she rooted around on her desk for one of her teardrop-shaped Cascade Badges to hold up to the screen, presumably to remind him of what they were talking about earlier.

_Hehe, this is gonna be fun_, he told himself fondly, reaching into his bag for his badge case and placing it beside the phone. The four gleaming objects shone brightly up at him, and he carefully picked up the first of his collection, the bowtie-like Trio Badge, brandishing it proudly for his friend to see.

Misty watched his every move with great interest. Were they really going to do this? The thought of having a conversation purely via props and arm movements was one she was still getting used to, one she did not quite know how to negotiate, but Ash always managed to find such new and unorthodox ways to surprise her, and, given that this was partially why she had followed him in the first place, she could never truly be mad at him for that.

As she tried to think of how to respond without the luxury of words, an idea eventually came to her, and she returned to her desk drawer once again, resurfacing soon after with a folded up square of glossy paper. The detailed map of the Unova region briefly obscured her from Ash's view as she stretched it out in full, but she managed to adjust her position by poking her head over the top and snaking her arms around the sides, the crumpled sheet pressed against her chest like an apron.

_Here?_ her eyes seemed to say when her pointing finger landed on a randomly chosen city. Once the game became clear to him, Ash felt another boyish grin creep onto his lightly tanned face.

_Left a bit_, his hands dictated. _No, my left!_ he quickly corrected. Misty's slender fingers slid along the page at his instruction.

_Here?_ Her head cocked to the side in sync with her finger resting on another point of interest.

_A bit further…_

_Okay…_

_Keep going…_

_Mhm…_

_Almost…wait, too far! Back a bit! There, stop, that's it!_

As soon as Misty's hand grazed the little dot that was Striaton City, the two friends cheered silently, punching the air in a kind of sarcastic celebration.

"What the heck are they doing?" the enthralled Iris thought out loud.

"A wordless conversation…" Cilan postulated. "Never have I encountered such an intriguing mix of ingredients. They must be very close indeed."

Once Ash and Misty had calmed down, the two friends then repeated their quirky little activity with Ash's other three badges. First was the book-inspired Basic Badge; after that, the shimmering green Insect Badge; then, last but not least, the newest of his collection, the Bolt Badge in all its angular glory. At multiple points during this process, Ash found his attention shifting from his vague hand gestures to Misty herself, his eyes scanning every inch of her that was visible around the map she was holding. It was an involuntary action at first, purely instinctive, but even as he began to become aware of what he was doing, the young man found he neither wanted nor had the power to stop.

His best friend had not changed much over the ten years he had known her. Her hair was a little longer now, flowing down to just above her shoulders, and judging by the unfortunate bedhead she had going on, Ash guiltily deduced that he had most definitely woken her up. The light from a lamp off-screen brought out a pleasing pink tinge in her fair face and arms, a sight matched in splendour only by the captivating sparkle of her vibrant teal eyes. She was truly beautiful – after so many years, he had finally learned to admit that to himself – but that did not explain the other feeling he had when Misty was around. It seemed to go way beyond his simple attraction, penetrating through all of his defences and planting itself firmly at his core. Perhaps this was why the feeling was just as terrifying as it was enjoyable.

A waving hand taking up the whole of Misty's screen brought Ash back down to Earth, and he scratched at his charcoal hair in embarrassment.

_Well?_ said the playful smirk on her face. After a second's confusion about where to go from here, Ash decided to move swiftly onto another of their popular over-the-phone activities; showing her the pokémon he had seen on his journey.

Unsheathing his sleek, black Unova pokédex from his jean pocket, he eagerly scrolled through his latest finds, picking out the particularly unusual-looking ones and holding them up to her screen. Though a couple of them provoked grins or small giggles from her, Ash could tell by her growing look of restlessness that it was the water pokémon she really wanted to see. With a flick of his wrist, he trawled through his roster of entries before landing on the first pokémon he saw in the Unova region, the palindromic Alomomola.

As he expected, Misty instantly lit up like a Christmas tree. The contortions of her mouth seemed to spell out something like, "_Awwweeeeeeooooohh!_", and her eyes glistened like stars at the sight of the symmetrical pink fish. What happened next, however, took Ash entirely by surprise.

First, she pointed directly at him, her expression both excited and oddly serious. Then came a bizarre 'diving' motion with her arm, ending with a splayed-fingered flutter that somewhat resembled a pokéball opening and closing. At the end, her pointing finger turned on herself, and she gazed across at Ash with a kind of hopeful look in her eyes.

The pokémon trainer wrestled with her weird signals for quite some time. Was she actually asking him to catch her an alomomola?

_You?_ his own finger double checked, to which she nodded happily.

Yet, despite the apparent seriousness of her request, Ash decided to approach it in his trademark obtuse manner. He grinned, waggling his finger back and forth like a metronome then curling it inwards to point at his chest. _Nah… _he teased her, _Me_.

_What?!_ read Misty's aghast face, before she pointed to herself once again. _No, me!_

_Uh-uh, me! _he countered. And thus, the point-off commenced.

_Me!_

_Me!_

_Me!_

_No, me!_

_ME!_

_ME!_

_ME, ME, ME, ME!_

They could comfortably have gone on like this forever, Ash thought to himself, were his ribs not getting sore from poking them repeatedly. If nothing else, this was unquestionably the quietest argument the pair had ever had.

As if by fate, though, a dramatic arc of light surged out from Ash's backpack on the floor, promptly halting their silent quarrelling. On the desk in front of him materialised a small, blue and white pokémon, its stubby arms raised in excitement.

"Oshawott!" he exclaimed.

When Ash glanced expectedly over at Misty, the smile on her face was so wide that he wondered if she might tear herself in half.

_Aww, hi there!_ She waved cutely over to him. As soon as Oshawott laid eyes on the water-loving gym leader, the vivacious little otter was instantly enamoured, and gawked over at her squealing visage with a streak of red across his face.

"Um, she can't hear you, buddy," Ash told him when he noticed the wannabe Casanova attempting to introduce himself to the screen.

But this did little to dampen his spirits, and he soon abandoned the talking in favour of dancing around and posing dramatically. He alternated between using his shell-like scalchop as a top hat and as his mighty weapon while he unapologetically showed off to his master's pretty human friend, from whom he received torrents of giggles and applause.

Ash, though entertained at first, gradually began to grow irritated with Oshawott's showboating. For a reason he could not quite work out, something about the scene rubbed him up entirely the wrong way. That, and he had pretty much lost ownership of the conversation at this point. He may have been a lover of all pokémon, but he would be damned if he was going to be upstaged by one.

Spontaneously, he began to perform his own rival dance next to Oshawott, making sure to match his energy and then trying to one-up him at every opportunity. His routine caused the bemused callers on either side of him to back away slightly, but Ash did not notice, too wrapped up in the competition of his own making. Misty had mostly stopped laughing, and now seemed more curious than amused. Iris, however, was in absolute stitches.

"H-He's so jealous!" she howled, wiping the tears from her eyes. "I can't b-believe they're actually competing for her attention!"

Cilan was just as mesmerised. "Such spice! Such zest! This display has all the makings of one utterly delectable dish!"

In their respective stupors, Ash and Oshawott did not immediately notice Misty's screen being suddenly taken up by a wide, beige-coloured bill, followed by two beady, expressionless eyes that simply stared forward.

This odd turn of events allowed Ash to regain his senses, and, deciding he won, he took this moment of inactivity to return the infatuated otter back to its pokéball. As the image pulled back a little bit at a time, the identity of the obstruction eventually became all too clear. The face he imagined Misty to be wearing at this moment made him chuckle in a kind of nostalgic way.

Sure enough, the predictably irked redhead reappeared seconds later, having shoved her dimwitted Psyduck a few inches off to the side. The yellow duck, as usual, appeared not to know what had just happened, or, indeed, where he even was, but, then again, Ash had never really nailed down what went on in the mind of Misty's supposed favourite pokémon.

He was just about to 'say' something else when another figure appeared from behind his best friend at the desk. She was dressed in a cream-coloured dressing gown, and her pink hair was wound tightly up in rollers. Ash soon recognised her as Misty's older sister, Lily, and was surprised to see that she apparently recognised him, too.

"_Like, hi, Ash! Heyyya!"_ he managed to lip-read her saying. With her eyes still on Ash, Lily scooped up the rotund Psyduck and placed him on the floor out of view. She then turned to Misty, whom Ash guessed was informing her about the whole sound issue (and her tired expression suggested that it was taking quite some effort). After that, Lily shrugged, shooting a little smile over at the pokémon trainer and stepping daintily away from the camera.

Misty shook her head at him, the little roll of her eyes conveying something of an apology for both Psyduck's and her sister's dizziness. Reaching for her map again, she appeared to have another question to ask, but just as she began to unfold it, Ash noticed Lily reappear around the corner, tiptoeing in so as not to alert Misty to her presence.

She was holding a large sheet of paper – a banner, of sorts – on which were three blocky words marked in bold black ink. The dim lamplight made them difficult to read, something not helped at all by her cheerleader-like dancing, but Ash eventually managed to catch a glimpse of the message during a second of stillness, and his face turned so red that Misty might have assumed he had burst into flames:

_Ask her out!_

Try as he might, he could not fully contain his swell of emotion, and as well as his sweltering cheeks, Misty quickly caught onto his eyes wandering behind her. Lily noticed this also, and began to edge slowly backwards in preparation for the big blow-up.

To Ash's relief, it seemed that his friend had not seen what was written on the sign. Whether she had or not, though, it was, at least, satisfying to see her silently scream at her sister and chase her away with the threat of a lethal mallet treatment.

"She's so violent…I love it!" Iris giggled from her hidey-hole. "I'm going over."

As she began to move, her less impulsive companion raised an eyebrow. "Iris, I'm not sure that's a good idea…"

"I just want to say hi! Come on!"

Needless to say, Ash and Misty had come to a kind of impasse after Lily's brief cameo appearance. While Misty was embarrassed in an angry sort of fashion, Ash's quietness was, uncharacteristically, of the more introspective variety. Why would Lily have wanted him to do something like that? And, perhaps more worryingly, why was he lingering on this instead of just dismissing it like he normally did?

Thankfully, the boy was rescued from his thoughts by the arrival of Iris and Cilan, the former grinning excitedly.

"Hey, guys," he greeted, his voice coming out a little shaky for some reason.

"Hey," Iris said. "We just thought we'd better let you know that we're in room 138 when you're done here."

Cilan shot the dragon trainer a sceptical look, but remained silent.

"Ah, o-okay…thanks," Ash acknowledged.

"So, who's your friend?" she chirped, not skipping a beat.

"Oh, er, this is M-"

But Iris did not wait for him to answer, leaping into view of the camera and waving amicably. Cilan followed suit, giving a small bow in his signature noble fashion. The sudden crowd distracted Misty from her grumbling, and she rapidly found herself flattered by the attention of whom she guessed to be Ash's new friends.

Like Lily, they opted for the more conventional method of communication, writing their names down on scraps of paper and presenting them to the waving Waterflower before them (Misty was particularly impressed by the green-haired one's stylised, curly handwriting). She returned the favour, scribbling the word 'Misty' on a post-it note and sticking it to the palm of her raised hand. It was a pretty bare-bones interaction, but without the power of speech, there was little else that could be said.

As quickly as they had appeared, Iris and Cilan announced that they would be going back up to the room (or, more accurately, their original vantage point, but Ash did not need to know that). They wrote Misty a joint message of 'Nice to meet you!' which she swiftly reciprocated, before scuttling hurriedly off around the corner.

At last, it was just the two of them again. It had only been a few minutes, but it seemed like forever since they had spoken without any interruptions, and now Ash realised that he had no idea what to say or do. Luckily, Misty picked up where she had left off almost straight away, collecting her map from off the ground and moulding it to the shape of her torso for the second time (this time, though, the action caused a little redness to spread across the bridge of Ash's nose).

Starting at Nimbasa City, her finger twirled around in multiple directions, all leading up the paths away from the little purple dot. With a click of his own fingers, Ash gathered that she had to be asking where he was going next, and in doing so, a rather humorous idea came to him, one he was sure she would find just as funny.

He signalled for her to give him a minute while he searched through his backpack for anything he could use in his little game. At the bottom, he came across a stale, rock-hard rice ball that had probably been there for at least a week or two. Also amongst his plunder was a black permanent marker, a red bottle cap that James from Team Rocket had pegged at him the other day, and an unripe oran berry, its purplish colour reminiscent of Iris's hair.

The young man chuckled to himself as he worked. The rice ball now had a crude drawn-on face and hair courtesy of the marker, and the bottle cap was stuck down atop its 'head' like a hat: a perfect little Mini-Ash.

Misty's instant spasm of laughter did not disappoint. She would have undoubtedly fallen off her seat were she not so determined to see where this was going. Ash matched her laughter with his own, but continued to work devotedly on his project. The oran berry represented Iris, of course, and, after a moment of brief indecision, he settled on the abandoned phone receiver as his effigy of Cilan (it was green, at least).

Bunching them together, Ash got out his own Unova map and began to 'walk' them along its narrow pathways, beginning at Nimbasa City and heading west towards the famous Driftveil Drawbridge. His animations were just as exaggerated as his creations, and the whole thing made the pair laugh like a couple of haunter.

It was certainly a long way to go just to answer a simple question, but somehow, this puppet show of sorts offered more detail, more meaning and, most importantly, more emotion than words alone ever could. Once the laughing faded out, Ash and Misty turned their attention back to their screens, their faces still a little flushed as they simply smiled over at one another. It had been so long since they had laughed together like this, and even longer since they had been able to meet up in person, that there was something almost bittersweet about how much they were enjoying themselves now. Ash could tell Misty felt the same way when he saw her smile had not quite reached her eyes.

Yet, the conversation was not over, and he had one last trick up his sleeve. Clearing the space in front of him of everything except his rice ball self, he delved once more into his backpack, this time into a secret side compartment where all of his 'key items', as he called them, were kept. He knew exactly where it was, so it took him no time at all to resurface above the counter and examine the familiar treasure in his hand.

The small piece of plastic smiled brightly up at him, and he smiled back. He briefly looked up at the real thing, who still had no idea, before uncurling his closed hand and placing his faithful Mini-Misty lure down on the desk, side by side with Rice Ash.

And Misty knew exactly what it meant. To the untrained eye, the action could have been easily misconstrued, with any number of both mild and extreme connotations; but she knew Ash, and she knew his friends were everything to him. Their eyes met over the touching scene – Ash's, warm and honest; Misty's, joyful and teary – conveying a message that had gone unsaid for so many years in such perfect, crystal-clear synchrony that the need to say it out loud had all but disappeared.

Of course they wanted to see each other. Of course they missed each other terribly. No matter how far afield Ash travelled, no matter how long it took for him to call, they would always be best friends, and nothing was going to change that. Ash's pokémon journey was his calling, and being a gym leader was Misty's, but the two young adults could both rest assured that, one day, somehow, they would find their way back to each other. Misty nodded to doubly confirm that she understood, while Ash merely smiled wider. He may not have been able to 'ask her out' in the traditional sense just yet, but maybe a silent, unspoken promise to visit as soon as he could was, for now, the next best thing.

They stayed like that for some time after, their eye contact only being broken by a sudden alert on Ash's videophone screen.

"Two minutes of call time remaining!" the cartoony audino in the bottom right-hand corner would have said, had the sound been working. Normally, Ash would have taken his chances, talking until the last second, but given that this was not exactly a normal phone call, he wanted to make sure it ended properly.

_Gotta go_, he mimed glumly with a tap of the imaginary watch on his wrist.

The redhead seemed somewhat saddened, but notably less so than usual. Ironically, without a single word being spoken, the pair had managed to say more in the last hour than they had the entire time they had known each other, and to claim that this softened the blow of parting ways for another month or three would be a gross understatement.

With a small but heartfelt wave each from the two friends, Ash moved his hand over the button to end the call, but was stopped by a second, more frantic wave from Misty to get his attention.

She suddenly appeared rather bashful, yet never took her eyes off Ash as she mouthed out two simple words:

_Thank you_.

Of everything that had happened in the conversation, this tiny, easily missable line was the thing that made his heart leap the most. It was still inaudible, but seemed so sincere, so understated, yet so powerful all at the same time. He barely let five seconds pass by before smiling as warmly as he could manage and then bidding his best friend farewell with an equally earnest reply:

_Thank you, too_.

"I think I'm going to cry," the typically hard-faced Iris whimpered.

Cilan, however, had crossed that bridge some minutes ago. "Oh, those bittersweet aromas!" he gushed melodramatically. "Their compatibility is off the scale! How fortunate I am to have witnessed this rare miracle!"

By now, Iris had pulled herself together. "Okay, drama queen, let's get back upstairs before he sees us."

So they did – but not without Cilan continuing to sing their praises every step of the way.

Standing up from his seat, Ash took one last glance at the now blank videophone screen, then proceeded to stroll at a leisurely pace towards the staircase, keeping a tranquil silence even now that there was no longer any need to. Speaking was overrated. What he really needed at this point was a long, satisfying rest. Tomorrow was a big day, after all: he had an alomomola to catch!

* * *

1:16am, read the small clock on Misty's desk. It had been at least three minutes since the call had ended, but her eyes remained fixed on the inactive screen that, for the last hour, had been graced with the image of her oldest and most valued friend.

Ash's calls kept her going through the lonely days of running the Cerulean gym virtually singlehandedly. Suddenly, it did not matter that they were so few and far between, for tonight's was absolutely the most fun she had had in a very long time, and those experiences were more than worth waiting for.

Keeping with the tradition of their recent conversation, she raised up her lithe finger, pointing it at her chest like she had earlier. Then, she pushed both of her hands out in front of her, joining them together to form a heart shape. In her final movement, the same finger as before extended out towards the phone screen, stopping when it lightly touched the cold, plasticky surface.

After their silent connection of a few minutes ago, Misty was surer than ever that the time to tell all would be very soon. Maybe when he came to visit, just like he promised. Yet, as pleasing as tonight was, there was no way in Hell she was going to reveal something like that through the medium of miming and rice balls. In order to render him speechless, the very least she needed to do was be able to speak.


	4. Bonus: Feel

To mark the anniversary of this collection, I have extended the Three Wise Mankeys concept with this bonus chapter: Feel. I worked very hard on this chapter, so please leave a review to let me know what you think.

* * *

Feel

"_Mesprit, the Emotion Pokémon. Mesprit taught humans the nobility of sorrow, pain, and joy, and is known as the 'Being of Emotion'. Although it slumbers at the bottom of the lake, its spirit is said to leave its body and flitter on the water surface."_

Dawn threw her pink pokédex to the ground in defeat. "Well, that's no help at all!"

"Pika…" Pikachu exhaled dourly.

She turned back to the scene in question. "Ugh, it was worth a shot. May as well keep trying, Brock." Blinking in agreement, the older pokémon breeder knelt down in front of their catatonic friend, propped limply up against a tree.

"Ash," he said, calmly but with an undertone of worry. "Ash, can you hear me?"

As with all the pair's previous attempts, Brock's request was met with nothing but a bone-chilling stillness.

"Ash, come on, now, snap out of it," he continued, this time with more urgency; however, his young friend's eyes remained as glazed and lightless as they had been for the last half hour.

"Do you think he's…he's…?" Dawn stuttered, unable to finish.

"No, I can see him breathing," Brock answered quickly. He then pressed a hand to the nineteen-year-old boy's head, sighing in uncertainty when he moved it away.

"Well, he doesn't have a temperature," he stated, "and his pupils reacted to my flashlight earlier. As far as I can tell, he's totally healthy."

"Does that look totally healthy to you?" she pointed out when Ash began to drool against the tree trunk. "I don't get it – he's been hit by a Thundershock attack thousands of times! What was so bad about this one to make him…like this?"

While Pikachu prodded at his trainer's head with his nose and paws, Brock took a step back to gather his scattered thoughts. In doing so, his tight eyes wandered over to his left, at the spot where the pokémon who had started all of this was trembling mysteriously in mid-air. Mesprit was an icon of legend, a story told to young children across the superstitious region of Sinnoh. They had met it before, even saved it from the clutches of the villainous Team Galactic, but those were extenuating circumstances. What the reclusive sprite was doing so far away from its home at the bottom of Lake Verity was a complete mystery, despite it being of little consequence now. Having said that, the pokémon's strange behaviour intrigued the wannabe pokémon doctor, and he instinctively began to recount in his head the bizarre events that had just transpired:

"_Priiiiiit!" Mesprit shrieked, the metal mesh rubbing painfully on its skin._

"_Let it go, Team Rocket!" Ash cried up to the insidious trio's hot air balloon._

"_No can do, twerp!" James teased from within the basket. "We came here for Pikachu and instead bagged ourselves a mighty Mesprit!"_

"_But don't worry, we'll be back for your electric rat as soon as we drop it off with the boss!" Jessie cackled._

"_Hahahaha! We's getting' two pokes for da price of one!" shouted Meowth, his feline features stretched into a smug grin._

"_Piplup, Ice Beam!" Dawn commanded. Her Penguin Pokémon leapt off her shoulder and prepared to attack._

"_You help out, too, Sudowoodo!" Brock joined in, tossing a pokéball from which the deceptive tree-like rock pokémon emerged. "Double-Edge!"_

_The two pokémon's attacks were unleashed simultaneously, each hitting the cord that held up the captive Mesprit and severing it with a small explosion._

"_Eeeeeeeeh!" wailed James. "Our net!"_

"_Dat was supposed to be the deluxe voision!" Meowth growled. "We sunk all our dough into it!"_

_Mesprit's turquoise body thudded to the ground, its arms, legs and two long tails thoroughly tangled in the shredded netting._

"_Hold on, buddy, I'll get you out of there!" Ash cried. He ran over to the squirming pokémon and knelt down behind it to pull at the thick twine._

"_Oh no you don't!" Jessie interjected, reaching for a pokéball. "Go, Wobbuffet!"_

_The inscrutable punching bag pokémon gave an ear-splitting yelp as it materialised._

"_Pikachu, send them packing with a Thundershock!" Ash instructed._

"_Pi-kaaaaaa…" Pikachu's body began to crackle with stored electricity. "Chuuuuuuuu!"_

"_Uh-uh-uh, twerp," Jessie laughed. "Mirror Coat!"_

_Before anyone knew what was happening, Pikachu's stream of electricity surged towards the balloon only to bounce dramatically off the emergent reflective surface and continue its warpath in the opposite direction – or, more precisely, straight at Mesprit and Ash._

"_Ash, get out of the way!" Brock warned, though he already knew there was no time. The blast hit Mesprit dead on, sending it crashing into Ash and forcing the pair backwards by at least ten feet._

"_Ash!" Dawn exclaimed. Brock, meanwhile, turned his full attention to the laughing Team Rocket trio._

"_Sudowoodo, jump up and use Low Kick!"_

"_Sudowoodo!" it confirmed. With one powerful leap, the slender pokémon lunged towards the meowth-shaped balloon and effortlessly slashed through the outside with its foot._

"_Waaaaaaah!" the three bellowed in unison as their punctured balloon exploded violently, sending them barrelling through the air. "We're blasting off again!"_

_Brock and Dawn immediately rushed over to Ash's side and writhed off the mesh he was covered in. Oddly, Mesprit had left the boy to seclude itself in a corner of the forest clearing._

"_Well, that sure showed them," Dawn sighed._

_Brock nodded. "Those guys are hopeless. Hey, Ash, they're gone, you can get up now." After a few seconds without a response, the twenty-four-year-old's mirth quickly turned to concern. "Ash?"_

"Unless it wasn't the Thundershock…" Brock commented when he snapped back to the present. "Maybe you were right in the first place, Dawn. Maybe it was…oh my god."

He stopped in mid-sentence to shrug off his backpack and rummage frantically through its contents.

"What? What is it?" Dawn asked.

"I remember reading something in a book I borrowed from the Canalave Library. Ah, here we go! Now, where was it…"

A number of speedy page flicks later, he snapped his fingers. "There! It's an old myth about the Lake Guardians of Sinnoh. Listen to this bit here…"

He cleared his throat. _"Dare not touch the Pokémon's body. In but three short days, all emotions will drain away."_

"I don't understand," Dawn admitted.

"It's about Mesprit, Dawn. Ash touched Mesprit when the two got hit by that attack. And now he's…"

Dawn slapped her hands over her mouth. She'd heard the stories, of course, but to think that they were true…! Before she could question it any further, however, a shrill noise sounded out from behind her.

"Mesprit?" she uttered, wincing at the bright light that surrounded it. The pink tendrils on its head were glowing, and its pupils were obscured by white light. It then shot into the air at breakneck speed, the sonic boom knocking its witnesses to the ground, and soared off across the sky with an unbreakable forward gaze.

* * *

"Owww…" James groaned, his back cracking as he stood up straight.

"I can't take all this constant blasting off!" Jessie huffed as she pointed to her foliage-covered head. "Look what it's doing to my beautiful hair!"

"Will you guys keep it down?!" Meowth barked. "My poor noggin's killin' me!"

"Well, you did land on it," James pointed out.

After staggering to their feet, the aching troublemakers hobbled grumpily along the quiet dirt road in the rough direction they had flown from. For the first ten paces, the surroundings were silent as the grave; yet, with every subsequent step they took, a low rumbling in the distance became louder and louder.

"What the…" Jessie started, but the redhead was cut off by the sudden appearance of one all-too-familiar failed conquest.

"Hey, it's Mesprit!" Meowth cheered. "How ya doin', ol' chum? You changed yer mind about joinin' da team?"

"Oh, you'll fit right in here with us bad guys," Jessie nodded.

"Absolutely," beamed James. "Especially when- OOOOOOOOHH!"

A flash of light plunged the trio into pitch darkness, which eventually softened into clouds of greenish white smoke as far as the eye could see. Mesprit had vanished, and neither sound nor sunlight could penetrate the thick vaporous veil that trapped them. Whether they were still in the same place or somewhere else entirely was impossible to tell, though such a conundrum wasn't nearly as frightening as the distinctly human-shaped mass that gradually rose from the fog.

"A g-g-g-g-g-ghost?!" James shrieked, his blue bangs standing on end.

"HEEEEELP!" Jessie screamed. "I'm too gorgeous to die!"

"_Calm down, guys, it's just me!"_

Before their terrified eyes, the ethereal shape sharpened and condensed, becoming less and less like a ghostly apparition and more like…

"THE TWERP?!" they shouted all together.

"_Hey, Team Rocket,"_ waved 'Ash'. His voice had a strange echo to it, and his features were somewhat wispy, but from the boyish lopsided grin to the trademark cap covering matted black hair, it was unmistakeably him.

"D-Don't hoit us!" Meowth cowered. "We was just playin', ya see? All dat stuff with Pikachu – we weren't never bein' serious about stealin' him!"

Ash chuckled. _"I'm not gonna hurt you. You don't need to be afraid. I've come to give you a gift."_

"A gift?" Jessie repeated, incredulous. "For us?"

"I think the twerp must have landed on _his_ head, too," James whispered to Meowth.

"_You guys have been following me and Pikachu since the day I started my journey,"_ Ash proceeded. _"In a way, you've been as much a part of my life as my friends and family."_

"I'm so confused," Jessie muttered.

"_Stealing pokémon is wrong, and I'll never let you take Pikachu or any of my pokémon away from me. But honestly, I don't think your hearts are really in it. They never have been."_

"Huh? What's he gettin' at?" Meowth thought out loud.

"_I don't believe you're really bad guys – you just work for them. You could be so much more!" _He scratched his head, sending little puffs of smoke flying out behind him. _"Anyway, I'm saying all of this because I want you to know that I've kinda got used to having you around over the years – and I care."_

"Such beautiful words!" James gushed with tears running down his cheeks. "How they ignite the bleeding heart in my frigid bosom!"

"Pathetic," Jessie sniped.

"_Hold out your hand,"_ Ash called out.

"Ooh, I wonder what it'll be!" James chirped as he extended his gloved hand out towards the boy.

"Not so fast, peabrain!" Jessie shoved her blubbering teammate out of the way. "If anyone deserves to be showered with gifts then it's yours truly!"

Before the other two could contest this statement, Ash brought his own hand forward in one slick motion. It rested on top of Jessie's, and the contact caused a kind of shockwave that sent the unprepared trio toppling onto their backs. When they looked up, the dirt road was back, the smoke had cleared, and Ash was nowhere to be seen.

"What the heck was dat all about?" Meowth asked when he stood back up.

"And where's our gift?!" James wailed.

Jessie growled. "What a ripoff. I can't believe that no-good little twerp! Let's see how much he 'cares' when we claim all his pokémon in the name of Team Rocket!"

Meowth laughed a wicked laugh. "Hahaha, dat'll show 'im! Lead the way, Jessie!"

Back in the clearing, Dawn had been pacing back and forth for so long that she had practically worn a groove in the soft forest floor.

"I still don't understand," she sighed. "You're saying he's fine apart from having no emotion, but look at him, he's like a zombie! I thought he'd just be speaking with a really boring voice or something."

Brock turned away from Ash to meet her eyes. "Emotionlessness doesn't work like it does in the movies, Dawn. Can you imagine doing anything, even the simplest things, without any feeling whatsoever? No, we humans rely on our emotions, and without them, how can we be any more than…well, that?"

As he pointed behind him to his inert friend, a slight twitch caught Dawn's eye.

"Brock, look!" she gasped as Ash began to stir intermittently. "What's happening? Is he getting better?"

Brock thought for a moment, then looked up to the skies, over the treetops where the so-called Being of Emotion had flown. Its odd behaviour could not have been mere coincidence – there had to be a connection somehow.

"I think," he murmured, his gaze fixed upwards, "I think Mesprit might be trying to save him."

* * *

A few dozen miles away, a tall and spiky-haired pokémon researcher walked peaceably along a quiet country road, a pencil and clipboard tucked under his arm.

"Way to go, Umbreon!" Gary Oak congratulated the pokémon walking alongside him. "That family of skuntank you sniffed out gave me some invaluable data to take back to Gramps and Tracey at the lab! Sorry about the smell, though."

"Umbree," the sleek black feline smiled, though not without a slight shiver.

"Anyway, I heard there's a nice pokémon centre in the next town so we ought to make it there before nightfall, eh, buddy?"

Gary turned around when Umbreon did not answer him.

"Umbreon? You okay?" he asked. His pokémon had its nose pointed to the sky, and its red eyes were squinting as if looking for something.

"Do you see something?" he tried again – though a spectacular sight would give him his answer only seconds later.

"Oh my god…" Gary mumbled, his eyes wide. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Mes," Mesprit uttered plainly.

"Wow…I've got to get a closer look at you." His heart thumping, Gary slowly reached for an empty pokéball on his belt. "Okay, Mesprit, just stay still…"

He hurled the ball at impressive speed towards the lake guardian, but was lost for words when the little sphere failed to make it all the way. As it clattered to the ground, he and Umbreon were suddenly enveloped in an endless pale green fog, concealing everything but a steadily rising figure from out of the haze.

"Ash?!" Gary choked out in alarm. "How did you…and wh-where did…what?!"

"_Hi, Gary,"_ Ash greeted.

"Umbreon, is this real?" he called down to his feet. The normally hyperaware dark-type pokémon was at a total loss.

"_I'm as real as the friendship and respect we have for each other," _Ash said rather mysteriously.

As well as his eyebrows raising almost off his head, Gary couldn't help but pull an amused grin. "Jeez, Ash, I know we're of drinking age now and everything, but save some for the rest of us, will ya?" he guffawed.

"_I'm serious, Gary,"_ he replied calmly, putting an immediate stop to Gary's laughter, _"and I know I don't often say these things, so I want to prove it with this gift."_

"A…gift?" Gary repeated. "Well, I just let a legendary pokémon get away from me, so unless you can top that-"

"_I've known you for as long as I can remember,"_ Ash interrupted. _"For a lot of that time, I genuinely thought I hated you."_

This remark brought another smirk to the young researcher's face. "No! You? Why, I would _never_ have guessed that!" he teased with an excess of sarcasm.

"_But the older I got, the more I realised it was just the opposite. It took me a long time to understand that you pushed me so much because you cared about me being better."_

"Er…sure, whatever works for you," Gary snorted. "Man, I knew that wine at the Seven Stars tasted funny…"

"_Our rivalry sure did keep me on my toes, alright. All that 'Gary was here, Ash is a loser' stuff? Yeah, that got to me every time."_

"Ehehe…I forgot about that."

"_But it motivated me to be stronger, go farther, fight harder…and I've gotta say, I really wouldn't be where I am now without you."_

Though still convinced he was hallucinating, Ash's words took Gary aback. Their rivalry had long since been over, but his childhood friend was rarely so upfront about how he felt like this.

"_We had our good times as rivals," _Ash smiled, _"but I know I like it way more now we're friends."_

Gary stood up straight and nodded. "Yeah, me too, buddy," he chuckled.

"_Shake on it?"_

"Sure."

The two held their hands out to each other in an amicable fashion. As soon as they touched, a blinding light left the disorientated Gary and Umbreon standing alone in the exact place where they had first encountered Mesprit.

"Huh?" Gary vocalised. "Ash? Hello?"

He looked around to no avail, then sighed a sigh of great confusion.

"Tell me I'm not crazy, Umbreon."

Umbreon, however, said nothing, its eyes glued to the sky once again. Gary followed its gaze only to catch a fleeting gaze at the pokémon he had just tried to capture, floating away at incredible speed with a sparkly aura trailing behind it. His brow furrowed.

"Wait a minute…"

"_Urrrghm."_

Dawn jumped. "Brock, did you hear that? Ash said something!"

"Pikapi?" squeaked Pikachu curiously.

As before, Brock knelt down in front of his emotionless friend. After doing the usual medical checkups, the puzzled man looked up having been left with only one conclusion.

"Please hurry, Mesprit."

* * *

The landscape was a blur; all that lay before it was a mass of signals, pulsating with an energy that sent tremors through Mesprit's slight body. With great haste did it slice through the skies, hoping with every passing second that it was not too late to undo what had been done. Emotions were both its masterpiece and its curse; such feelings had breathed new life into all of humanity, but never could their creator feel the warm touch of a human being without robbing him of the very things that made him so.

Distance had to be maintained. And yet, this boy intrigued it. Such a capacity for love, even for his enemies, in such a…singular organism. The signals were several hundred, maybe even a thousand in number; how he had touched the hearts of so many across the world was nothing short of astounding. Some were rather faint, while others were positively bristling with energy. These emotions had to be shared, as was the only way to return them to their rightful owner, but time was of the essence, and Mesprit knew it could only afford to visit the very strongest of sources. As it happened, the nearest was far, far away, in the verdant wilds of the Johto region…

"Drew, wait up!"

May stumbled through the pokémon centre doors, clumsily fastening up her trademark bandana as she pelted down the road like a crobat out of hell. Groaning, her green-haired companion slowed his indignant power walking to a stop in order to let her catch up.

"What's…th-the hurry?" she puffed, her cheeks blazing from the unwanted exercise. "I wasn't even dressed!"

Drew crossed his arms. "I told you I wanted to be in Goldenrod City before five o'clock. At the rate you were going, we'd be lucky if we got there this month!"

"I slept in, alright? It's not as if you've never done that before," May said with a roll of her eyes.

"Not when I knew I had to be somewhere. I'd have thought making you breakfast in bed would wake you up at least a little bit."

"Heehee. Nope, that just made me want to stay there all day," she giggled as she stretched upwards to kiss him on the cheek. "You can be real cute sometimes, you."

"Yeah, yeah," he waved off, though not without a small smile. "Wait…what's that?"

An otherworldly twinkling caught the young man's eye not too far away in the air. It descended slowly until disappearing behind a row of bushes, and Drew did not hesitate to hurtle after it.

"Hey, where are you going now?!" May cried, exasperated. "I swear, Drew, you keep this up and you'll be heading to Goldenrod City in Munchlax's stomach!"

She chased after him, sighing when he disappeared from sight behind the bushes. With a few slight hops, she hauled herself through the shrubbery one bush at a time. Once on the other side, May discovered that Drew was long gone yet again – and, as it turned out, so was everything else.

"Drew?" she cried through the endless smoke. "Drew, where are you?"

"Over here," a faint voice responded. A number of back-and-forths eventually led the scrabbling May over to her fellow coordinator, but as she wobbled to his side, she noticed his gaze was fixed on something considerably more alarming than herself.

"_Oh, hey, May! I was wondering where you'd got to!"_

Drew anticipated her startled scream and silenced it just in time with a hand over her mouth.

"A-Ash?" she panted. "What are you doing here? What's with all this smoke? Somebody talk to me!"

"Put a cork in it, silly," Drew teased with a flick of his hair. "Ash just told me why he's here – right after I asked him why he looks like a genie."

"Er, okay?" She looked at Ash expectantly.

"_I've brought gifts for you guys that I think you'll like,"_ Ash smiled. When they said nothing, he turned to look May straight in the eye.

"_May, you've always been and will always be one of my best friends,"_ he said. _"When I first met you, I'd been on the road for five years already, and it was nice to help you get over your fear of pokémon and show you how awesome they can be. You really came into your own when you decided you wanted to be a pokémon coordinator."_

May was lost for words. All she could do was stare in awe.

"_I guess I've always thought of you as my little sister, you know? Max, too – well, brother in his case, hehe. Make sure to give him my love, by the way. You've come so far since we travelled together, and I'm honestly so proud of you."_

"I, um…" the flustered girl faltered. "Thank you, Ash. Really."

Drew stepped forward. "Hey, since when are you so touchy-feely? You didn't drink from the Lake of Rage on your way here, did you?"

Ash just smiled again. _"Drew, we may not always have seen eye to eye, and I didn't get to know you as well as May did, but even though I never wanted you to win, I always enjoyed watching you perform."_

"Er…" Drew hesitated. "Thanks. I think."

"_Also, I'm so happy for you and May."_

Matching blushes adorned the shocked pair's faces, despite their hands unconsciously finding each other.

"That's, er, nice of you to say," May smiled awkwardly. "But…we haven't told anyone yet! How did you-"

A sudden eerie flicker of the shroud around them broke off May's tentative questioning. Ash's smile slid off his face, replaced by a look of disguised urgency.

"_Time to go,"_ he said, prompting looks of confusion from May and Drew.

"Go?" Drew asked. "Go where?"

Instead of answering, Ash just thrust his arm outwards. _"Don't worry about me, guys. Friends?"_

Shrugging, the young couple raised up their still intertwined hands, simultaneously placing them down on top of Ash's. The moment of contact dispelled the smoke completely, restoring both the surroundings and their occupants to how they were.

"You didn't drug my breakfast in bed, did you, Drew?" May murmured over a minute later.

"Nope," he exhaled.

It took several minutes of walking for the unexplainable scene they had just witnessed to slip from the forefront of their minds. Once she had given up trying to rationalise it, May swivelled around to Drew with a twinkle in her eye.

"So…" she started mischievously, "think we've got time for a little ice cream stop before we hit the road?"

Drew rolled his eyes. "You and your food. Alright then, Grumpig, ice cream it is."

"You're buying, though, right?"

Walking slightly ahead, the young man looked playfully back over his shoulder. "Something like that."

* * *

"Hmm…something outside seems to be causing some interference. I'd better take a look- ooh, ack, this blasted lumbago!"

The handrail of the old metal staircase creaked under the full weight of the aged Professor Oak as he staggered painfully down to the lower level of his research floor. The device he held in his hand beeped more frequently the further he descended.

"Curious," he muttered, waving the device around in multiple directions. "If I can just pinpoint the source of- HEAVENS ABOVE!"

The signal led underneath the sofa the professor was currently sitting on, causing him to jump up in shock.

"Ayee, my back! Tracey! Tracey, can you come here a second? I can't bend down to analyse this…s-signal…"

The old man was floored by the legendary figure that floated upwards from between the seat cushions.

"In all my years of research…" he stammered. "Tracey, come quick!"

Outside on the reserve, the professor's docile assistant caught this last vital snippet through the open window.

"Coming, Professor!" he cried, dropping his equipment and darting towards the laboratory door. Unfortunately for him, an affectionate old acquaintance was hot on his tail.

"MUUUUUUK!"

"NO, MUK, PLEASE NOT NOW-AAAARRGGRHGHHHHH!"

Professor Oak eyed Mesprit with genuine fascination. He knew from experience not to chance a capture, nor to make any sudden moves. Instead, he simply watched, committing the pokémon's seldom-seen details to memory. Mesprit stared back for a second or two before swooping forward and disappearing into an all-encompassing veil of smoke.

"_Professor!"_ Ash greeted as he stepped into view.

"Ash? How extraordinary," Professor Oak remarked. "The likeness is uncanny."

"_What do you mean?" _Ash chuckled. _"It's me, Professor!"_

He shook his head. "The Lake Guardians of Sinnoh have always been a particular academic interest of mine. You may look and sound like Ash Ketchum, but as the Being of Emotion, you should well know that that boy is one of a kind."

Like with May and Drew, the smoke around Professor Oak began to flicker and thin out. Ash's face was one of sincere alarm.

"I don't doubt that your intentions are good, Mesprit. That can only mean you've assumed Ash's form to warn me of something, correct?"

Instead of responding vocally, the Ash shape merely nodded its head.

Oak stroked his chin. "Then the legends are true…"

Mesprit did not react, which conveniently worked in the concerned professor's favour.

"Mesprit, if my theory is correct and Ash truly is in serious trouble, then I'd rather we didn't waste any more time chatting. Please, do what you have to do, and save him."

Across Ash's eyes passed an unnatural sheen of red. Were it not for its glistening brilliance, the colour would almost seem demonic. But Professor Oak knew this was a sign that Mesprit understood, and, more importantly, agreed.

A wispy appendage stretched forwards and gently swirled itself around Oak's frail right hand. As he expected, the smoke cleared, the surroundings returned, and Mesprit tore out of the room with unparalleled haste and a newfound resolve.

"Phew," Tracey wheezed as he scraped a handful of slime off his lab coat. Ash's overzealous Sludge Pokémon sure had put up a fight this time. Blowing his dark green bangs out of his eyes, the pokémon watcher continued his path through the lab to the top floor.

"Professor?" he called up the stairs. "Is everything okay? I'm almost- WHOOOAH!"

As Tracey reached the second flight of stairs, a whoosh of air knocked his feet right out from underneath him. The fall was slow, like sinking in water, but Tracey was aware of every drawn-out second. Before he hit the ground, a dazzling ball of light passed cleanly through his chest and flew out the open door at the end of the hall.

"What…just happened?" he thought out loud in a daze. When he eventually reached the research floor, a peculiar thought suddenly appeared in his mind. "Wait…Ash really thinks that much of me?"

"Indeed he does, Tracey," Professor Oak acknowledged from across the room. "Though I must admit, I really had no idea that Ash considered me a father figure."

The fifty-nine-year-old chuckled at his assistant's lost expression. "I think you'd better sit down for this one…"

* * *

Reversing the curse was a delicate procedure, one that Mesprit had only attempted a handful of times. The emotional transfer relied on the belief of the receivers, so when the cloth-headed female and her mate had shown some scepticism, the empathic pokémon feared all was lost. Its most recent episode with the elderly human had been an even closer call. But it was too late to turn back now, especially when its mission was so nearly complete.

Of the powerful energy signals, only two now remained, and each was far stronger than anything Mesprit had yet encountered. As luck would have it, both signals were transmitting from the same location. This would be its final stop – but the sheer potency of the emotions left to give out could yet prove a sizable challenge…

* * *

"Can I get you some more tea, Misty?"

The orange-haired woman on the sofa looked up. "No, thank you, Mrs. Ketchum, I'm fine."

"It's Delia, dear, remember?"

Misty blushed. "Oh, yes, sorry…Delia."

The benevolent single mother sat down beside her young friend. "So, how have things been going lately at the gym?"

"The gym?" she clarified. "Ah, you know…same old, same old."

"Ash told me the other day that he saw your picture on a magazine in Sinnoh. It's wonderful to see that you're so famous now!"

"He did?"

"Yes. I think he said the article was called 'Top Ten Sexiest Gym Leaders' or something?"

The red across the young girl's nose quickly spread to the rest of her face. "Oh…that," she mumbled, highly embarrassed. "My sisters made me do that stupid interview. I'm sure Ash had a good laugh when he saw the magazine, yeah?"

Delia smiled. "Not from what I could tell – because he told me he'd bought it."

"He what?!" Misty's stomach fluttered in a way she was more than accustomed to. "Wh-Why would he do that?"

"Maybe you can ask him yourself when he calls today," Delia winked affectionately.

Whatever conflicting thoughts had popped into the Cerulean gym leader's head were, to her relief, dashed by a strange, spirit-like presence outside the sliding door to her left.

"Hey, Mrs. Ketchum – er, Delia, I mean – do you see that?"

In the midday sun, the bright entity was near impossible to identify. But it radiated with a kind of energy, a warm familiarity that instantly drew Misty and Delia in. Mesprit slipped through the opening in the door and, before either of them could process what they had seen, morphed itself into the same greenish smoke to house them in its nebulous embrace.

"Goodness!" Delia exclaimed.

"What is this?" gasped Misty, looking around frantically. "What's going on?"

Through the expanse of pale vapour, not a sound but their own echoing words could be heard.

"I know you're out there," she continued. "Whatever you are, show yourself, or else!"

"_Gee, Mist, all you've gotta do is ask."_

"AAAAAAHH!"

She'd recognise the voice behind her in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, her instincts were even quicker than that, and she spun on her heel only to take a powerful punch at thin air.

"Hyaa!" she grunted. "Huh?"

"_Whoa, hey, it's nice to see you, too!"_

She and Delia turned back around to see their respective best friend and son grinning over at them.

"Ash!" Delia cried with joy. "How nice it is to see you! But, dear, how are you, erm…here?"

Ash scratched his head. _"Yeah, sorry to scare you guys like that. There was no time to warn you – I just had to see you right away."_

"Oh, well I'm very glad you did!" she gushed. "I was expecting your call today, but I certainly didn't expect this! Some fancy new Sinnoh technology, is it?"

"_Er, something like that," _he laughed. Misty's eyes narrowed. Somehow, this whole scene just felt…off.

"_I can't stay long,"_ Ash said, _"just long enough to give you these gifts."_

"Gifts?" Delia questioned. "Oh, Ashy, just seeing you is all I could ever ask for!"

"_I'm honestly not sure where to start with you, Mom,"_ he smiled. _"You're the most amazing person I've ever known. It must have been so hard raising a kid all on your own in a place like Pallet Town, but you did, and you never complained, even for a second."_

"Oh my," Delia breathed, her hand touching her heart. "Ash, I…"

"_I've always wanted to travel, to be a pokémon trainer and rise to the top. You knew that the whole time, and even though that meant I'd leave you, all you gave me was encouragement, time after time. I don't think I can ever truly thank you enough for that."_

"Ash," she choked as a tear or two escaped her hazel eyes, "I don't know what to say…"

"_I know you'd do anything for me – and you have – but I never really tell you that I'd do the same for you. I love you, Mom. More than anything."_

Tears were now pouring down the overjoyed woman's face. She covered her mouth with her hands to suppress her heavy sobbing.

"Thank you, Ash, thank you so much! I love you too, baby, and I miss you!"

The speech would usually have caused Misty to tear up as well, but still she couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss. Her heart almost stopped when she saw Ash's gaze shift to meet hers.

"_Misty…"_

"Stop," she said abruptly. "I don't know who you are, but you are NOT Ash Ketchum."

Both Ash and Delia lost their smiles in a fraction of a second. The smoky environs began to fizzle and fluctuate.

"_What are you talking about?" _Ash pondered. _"It's me, Ash, your best frie-"_

"Don't give me that!" she cut through. "If you're about to wax lyrical to me like you just did to Delia, then that only confirms it, because my Ash would never say those kinds of things about me! Now tell me who you are before I get really mad!"

It took several agonising seconds for anything visible to happen. Just as Misty had caught her breath, the veil of clouds suddenly faded to nothing, and in place of the ethereal Ash was the legendary Mesprit of Lake Verity, hovering a foot off the ground and exuding a vivid light.

"A p-pokémon?!" Delia shrieked. "What did you do to my Ashy?!"

Mesprit's glow receded into its body, and it stared Misty solemnly in the eye.

"_You are correct," _it explained telepathically. _"I am not the human of which you speak. I feel what he feels, and I come to you because you are needed to feel it, too. His life depends on it."_

"His…life?" Misty stammered, the air in her chest promptly retreating. Delia began to weep once more.

"_Hold still. I mean you no harm."_

Floating forward, Mesprit extended its jewelled tail out to Misty. It stopped only inches from her. Very slowly, it moved to make contact with the girl – not to her hand this time, but to her heart. And in an instant, Misty understood everything.

"Oh…my god…" she said on a disjunct inhale. The knowledge was beyond anything she'd ever imagined, the emotions more real and visceral than any she'd ever experienced. Hovering backwards, Mesprit nodded its head and silently turned to leave.

"Wait!" she shouted purely instinctively. The things she'd just heard, the feelings she'd felt – there was no way she could just leave it there. Ash needed her. And she needed him.

"Take us to Ash."

* * *

Dawn bent down to perform another checkup on Ash, who at this point was able to sit up unsupported but otherwise showed little consciousness at all.

"He's been getting a little better," she said to herself. "Do you think he could recover completely?"

Brock, having taken over Dawn's habit of pacing, just shook his head in uncertainty.

"And didn't the myth say it would take three days? What more could happen to him?"

"I don't know, Dawn!" Brock snapped, far more impatiently than he'd intended. "Ugh. I'm sorry. I just…don't know what to do. The nearest town's at least two days away, and-"

The fraught man was interrupted by a sudden burst of cool air on his back. He turned around to see his two old friends, Delia Ketchum and Misty Waterflower, sprawled on the grass a few feet away, Mesprit floating above them.

"Misty!" he cried. "Mrs. Ketchum! How…"

"Where is he," Misty demanded, her tone indicating no trace of a question. He pointed over to the tree where Dawn was crouching, to which they darted before Brock could even lower his hand.

"Ash! Oh, my baby, speak to me, please!" Delia howled, squeezing his dirt-covered hands in hers.

"Mesprit said it could feel Ash's feelings. What's happened to him?" Misty asked, her eyes widening as Brock explained.

"It's me, Ash, it's your mommy!" Delia kept trying. "Don't you recognise me? Oh, don't do this to me, Ash, please don't…"

Everyone was too moved to say anything. Even Pikachu could not face joining in the pleading, for Ash just sat there, staring emptily into the middle distance.

"You've g-got to wake up, you've just got to! You're m-my only son, my whole w-world! What am I going to d-do without you…"

The woman was hysterical now, and Ash's clothes were soaked in her tears. Misty placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Delia…let me try," she said softly. Still sobbing, Delia nodded and shuffled back to let the young girl get in close.

"Ash," she said, as calmly as she could. "Ash, it's me. It's Misty."

The boy did not make a sound.

"I know you're in there somewhere, Ash," she persisted. "I'm wearing my hair down, see? Mesprit told me you like it like this."

She pointed at her flowing jaw-length hair, frowning when Ash failed to notice.

"And that's not all it told me," she carried on. "I've seen into your head, Ash Ketchum, and don't think for one second I'm going to let you forget it."

"That's Misty?" Dawn whispered to Brock. "The girl from the fishing lure?"

He nodded. "Mesprit wouldn't have brought them here for no reason. If anyone has a chance of bringing Ash out of this, it's Misty."

"Well, it's real nice to know you feel bad about wrecking my bike!" Misty barked. "Not bad enough to ever get me a new one, though, huh?" She smiled. "I always figured you were just a cheapskate. You never told me you didn't pay me back because you liked having me around."

Scooting in closer, she took one of Ash's hands and stroked it gently. "I also never knew how much you missed me. Travelling with you was the best time of my life, and I miss it every day. You may have annoyed the living crap out of me at first, and still do a lot of the time, but I can't even imagine what my life would be like without you in it.

"You know what your mom and I were doing when Mesprit came to us? We were talking about you. That's what we do most of the time I visit Pallet Town, really. Though that reminds me: if I found out you bought that trashy gym leader magazine you're getting SO malleted!"

A chance meeting of his eye told Misty that now was the time to go in for the kill. "Mesprit told me something else, too. Something I never thought I'd hear from you, and in a way, still haven't." Her heart was beating at an uncomfortable rate. "But I know that's how you feel, whether you say it out loud or not, because the truth is," she took in a nervous breath, "I love you, too."

She ignored the gasping behind her and removed Ash's hat to press her forehead against his. "I love you so much, Ash. I always have. That's why you've got to come back to me."

For several seconds, Misty simply held silently onto her best friend, begging for the torrent of tears behind her eyes not to fall.

"You've always been dense, but not like this. And where's the f-fun in that, huh? Please, Ash…come back so y-you can be just the right kind of dense again…for me…"

She pulled back, hoping with all her heart that she had done enough. The emotion she released was the rawest and purest she had to give, and she prayed that he could feel it, wherever he was.

"Pika…" Pikachu purred in dismay.

But Ash was still unreachable. This had been their last hope. Misty's head drooped almost to the ground, a lone tear falling from her eye and splashing onto the grass beneath her. There was nothing more she could do, and she knew that, despite not wanting to accept it. All that emotion, all those fervent fragments and mesmerising sensations, now for nothing. It was a feeling she hoped she would never have to feel.

She could not look at Ash in this state. Her friend was gone, and the husk before her was only a painful reminder of that. With her eyes closed, she pulled the hair bobble from off her wrist and moved to tie her hair back up into its usual side ponytail. When she felt a hand close around her wrist, however, the heartbroken girl almost jumped out of her skin.

"Don't. I like it like that."

Misty's eyes shot open to see her best friend smiling warmly at her.

"ASH!" everyone shouted simultaneously.

"PIKAPI!" Pikachu squeaked with joy.

_Is this real?_ Misty couldn't stop herself from thinking. Everything seemed so hopeless just a second ago. Even so, this small doubt didn't stop her from crushing the boy in the tightest of hugs.

"Mist…can't…breathe…." Ash coughed, his face awash with crimson.

"Don't ever do that to me again!" she shouted right in his ear. "You had me worried sick!"

"Misty, I've got no idea what you're talking about," Ash said casually.

She blinked. "You've got some nerve, Ketchum!" A smile appeared on her face. "Although…I guess if this hadn't happened, I might never have found out how you feel."

"How I…feel?" Ash asked confusedly. "About what?"

"About me, of course!" she giggled.

"Well, er, I'm happy to see you, if that's what you mean. Ooh, hey, we should have a battle!"

A pang of sickness sunk through Misty's stomach. "Wait," she said feebly, "you don't remember?"

"Remember what? Come on, Mist, let's battle!"

As he ran boyishly down the grass, Misty wobbled to her feet, all of a sudden feeling numb and queasy. After all of that, for Ash to come back only for her to essentially lose him again…it was like a cruel joke that nature had played on her. The humiliation, the heartache, it was unbearable. And all she wanted to do was run away and cry.

She glanced across at the others, most of whom averted their gaze presumably out of courtesy. There was one who didn't, however. Mesprit, still floating off to the side, was smiling, its eyes trained on her unmistakeably. With its paw it touched its heart, then pointed off in the distance to where Ash had run off. It was a peculiar gesture, but Misty felt she understood instantly. Whether Ash realised it or not, she had seen into his head, his heart, and knew with certainty the emotions she had found. The feeling was where it counted, after all – who needed to hear the words?

"Ash?" she called over, a newfound confidence fuelling her every bounding step.

"Yeah?" he said when she made her way over to him. "Erm, you're gonna need to move back a bit if we're battling, Mist."

She smiled, all the while swallowing her nervousness. "We can battle later. I've got a better idea right now."

Without waited for him to react, she moved in close to him and gently circled her arms around his neck.

"M-Misty," he spluttered, "wh-what are you doing?"

"Something I should have done a long time ago," she answered.

Ash's blush was now fierce. "I…don't understand."

"I'm not asking you to understand, Ash Ketchum." With every word, her face inched closer. "Just feel."


End file.
